Two Very Different Cases Where Seeing the Data Makes a Difference

For your consideration;

1) The NIH announced last week that they were ending a multi-year study on blood pressure years early due to overwhelming evidence (see here in the NY Times). This has raised some criticism however, as without more information doctors cannot act on the findings. Physicians Eric Topol and Harlan Krumholtz called for medicine to move at a faster speed in a NY Times op-ed Don’t Delay News of Medical Breakthroughs on the NIH blood pressure study. The Incidental Economist Aaron Carrol expresses similar concerns here in a bit of a rant. Sarah Hedgecock gives an explanation and some examples from Twitter here on Forbes.

2) In the Chronicle of Higher Education,  Landmark analysis of an Infamous Medical Study Points out the Challenges of Research Oversight, co-authors of the recent re-analysis and the re-evaluation of Paxil as ineffective and unsafe for adolescents emphasize their work as a step toward creating a framework for similar reviews going forward. They believe that this requires access to patient level data from clinical trials.

 

Special Event, Marking an Anniversary, and MSK Staff in the News

An assortment of news items worth sharing….

New Drug, New Guidelines and More…

Some of the stories that caught my attention:

  • Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange have an increased risk of developing multiple myeloma, a new study suggests.
  • The FDA approved Varubi (rolapitant), a drug to prevent chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting. The drug was approved after three phase 3 clinical trials involving 2800 adults.
  • A recent study published in JAMA Surgery shows a rise in double mastectomy among males. While male breast cancer cases are less common than women, men are less likely to survive the disease. Results analyzed in this paper, revealed that during a seven year period, double mastectomies for men went from 3% in 2004 to 5.6% in 2011.
  • The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released new guidelines on genetic and genomic testing. The guidelines were published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and are available on the ASCO website.