Long-term androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) is the standard of care in combination with radiotherapy (RT) in high-risk prostate cancer (PC), despite substantial toxicity from the resulting hypogonadism. We hypothesized that a combination of more potent but shorter-term androgen inhibition in men with intermediate or high-risk localized PC would synergize with definitive RT to provide short-term testosterone recovery and improve disease control.

This prospective phase 2 single arm trial enrolled men with low volume unfavorable intermediate or high-risk localized PC. Treatment included 6 months of ADT concurrent with abiraterone acetate plus prednisone once daily (AAP) and RT to prostate and seminal vesicles. The primary endpoint was the proportion of men with an undetectable PSA at 12-months; secondary objectives included biochemical progression-free survival (PFS), testosterone recovery, toxicity, and sexual/ hormonal quality-of-life.

We enrolled 37 men between January 2014 and August 2016, 45% of whom were high-risk .All patients had T1-2 disease and PSAs <20 ng/ml. Median follow-up is 37 months (95% CI: 35.7, 39.1).Treatment noted 32% grade 3 toxicities related to AAP, predominantly hypertension, with no >G4 toxicities. The rate of undetectable PSA at 12-months was 55% (95% CI 36-72%). With 46 months median follow-up, two of 37 patients developed PSA progression (36-month PFS 96%; 95% CI: 76%, 99%), and 81% of patients recovered testosterone with median time to recovery 9.2 months. Hormonal/sexual function declined at six months with subsequent improvement by 24 months.

The combination of RT and 6 months of ADT and AAP demonstrated acceptable toxicity and a high rate of testosterone recovery with restoration of QOL and excellent disease control in men with low volume intermediate or high-risk localized prostate cancer. Prospective comparative studies are justified.

International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics. 2020 Nov 28 [Epub ahead of print]

Bridget F Koontz, Karen E Hoffman, Susan Halabi, Patrick Healy, Monika Anand, Daniel J George, Michael R Harrison, Tian Zhang, William R Berry, Paul G Corn, W Robert Lee, Andrew J Armstrong

Duke Cancer Institute Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers Durham NC USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University, Durham NC USA. Electronic address: ., Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston TX USA., Duke Cancer Institute Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers Durham NC USA; Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham NC USA., Duke Cancer Institute Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers Durham NC USA., Duke Cancer Institute Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers Durham NC USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Duke University, Durham NC USA; Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, Duke University, Durham NC USA., Duke Cancer Institute Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers Durham NC USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Duke University, Durham NC USA., Duke Cancer Institute Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers Durham NC USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University, Durham NC USA., Duke Cancer Institute Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers Durham NC USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Duke University, Durham NC USA; Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, Duke University, Durham NC USA; Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University, Durham NC USA.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33259932

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Combination of Radiotherapy and Short-Term Androgen Blockade with Abiraterone Acetate plus Prednisone for M... - UroToday

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What is Prader-Willi Syndrome?

Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused by a defect of genes in the proximal arm of chromosome-15 which leads to life-threatening childhood obesity. It is associated with obesity, hypogonadism, intellectual deficits, small stature along with small hands, and feet.

A child with PraderWilli Syndrome

The first case of Prader-Willi syndrome was first described in a mentally impaired adolescent girl in 1887 by Langdon Down and was later described in medical literature in 1956 by Swiss doctors Andrea Prader, Alexis Labhart, and Heinrich Willi.

Presence of characteristic facial features like almond-shaped eyes, narrow bifrontal diameter, and the nasal bridge thin upper lip and downturned mouth. These features are noticed soon after birth.

Prader-Willi syndrome has been described worldwide and is a genetic disorder occurring in approximately 1 in every 15,000 live birth. It affects males and females equally, all races and ethnicities are equally susceptible.It is highly unlikely for parents to have more than one child with Prader-Willi syndrome.

PWS is caused due to abnormality in the expression of genes on Chromosome 15 specifically on the long arm of chromosome 15. This abnormality can be attributed to the following :

The defects seen in Prader-Willi syndrome is mostly attributed to hypothalamic disorder, which may explain some typical features of the syndrome like delayed growth and hyperphagia as the hypothalamus is the center for hormone production, growth, and hunger regulation.

Various studies have implied the role of Ghrelin in satiety defect and have found Ghrelin to be about 4-5 folds higher in people with PWS. (Ghrelin is a hormone produced by enteroendocrine cells and is also known as the Hunger Hormone)

Three sets of diagnostic criteria have been established for the diagnosis of Prader-Willi Syndrome. These are major, minor, and supportive.

These criteria though they dont have points, aid in the diagnosis of the disease.

Based on the guidelines established by Holmes et.al the diagnosis of Prader-Willi syndrome is highly likely in children younger than 3 years if they score 5 points with 3 of those coming from the major criteria.

In the case of children older than 3 years with Prader Willi syndrome is highly likely if they score 8 points with 4 from major criteria.

Magnetic Resource Imaging (MRI) of the head to assess hypopituitarism. The individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome are at risk of pathological fractures, however high degrees of pain tolerance in these patients make it necessary to diagnose fractures to prevent stiffness and malunion of fractures. DEXA Scan: To detect complications of osteoporosis. Scoliosis Film of the vertebra.

To reach the diagnosis of PWS we need to differentiate it from other diseases which may be causing similar features:

These conditions can be differentiated from PWS with the help of the DNA Methylation technique.

Apart from these, other genetic conditions are causing short stature and obesity which need to be ruled out:

There is no permanent cure for Prader-Willi syndrome currently, and the treatment of the syndrome requires a multidisciplinary approach from geneticists, endocrinologists, nutritionists, pulmonologists, neurologists to prevent complications from PWS.

The treatment is generally directed towards symptomatic relief and problem management.

The treatment plan needs to be continuously reassessed as the child grows older as it needs changes.

Early diagnosis and treatment of PWS can go a long way in improving their quality of life and help them reach their full potential.

Children with PWS require proper care apart from specific symptomatic treatments. Most children can benefit from the following:

Infants with PWS have low muscle tone consequentially they are unable to breastfeed properly. A pediatrician can help by recommending special feeding methods and prescribing high-calorie diets. Use of a Nasogastric tube may be required.

A proper diet low on calories but providing necessary nutrition is key in managing the weight of PWS in children. Supplemental vitamins and minerals are required for balanced growth. Proper diet complemented with increased physical activity help in weight management. The child should exercise for at least 60 minutes. The exercise routine should be broken down into multiple 5- 10 minute sessions in children having decreased energy levels.

As the desire for appetite in children with PWS is high, parents need to keep strict vigilance on their eating habits, there should be proper meal times, food should be kept out of their view and no extra feeding should be done.

Human growth hormone (HGH) treatment. An endocrinologist can help decide if the baby will benefit from HGH injections. In children with Prader-Willi syndrome, it helps in facilitating growth, decreasing body fat content, increasing muscle size, and muscle tone.

Sex hormone treatment. Children with PWS have a very low sex hormone level, requiring hormone replacement therapy (Testosterone for males; estrogen and progesterone for females). HRT begins as the child approaches puberty. Apart from raising hormonal levels, it helps also in preventing bone thinning. Orchidopexy may be required for Cryptorchidism (Undescended testis).

Treating sleep disturbances related to PWS can improve daytime sleepiness and behavioral issues in children.

Strict parenting is required to keep the behavior in check, especially concerning food, to prevent over-eating; a proper diet plan needs to be formulated. Calmness is required while dealing with children showing temper tantrums- the situation should be deflated as soon as possible by engaging the child in another topic. Medication may be required in some cases.

A psychologist or a psychiatric consultation may be required to address obsessive-compulsive disorders, skin picking, or mood disorders in children with PWS. The childs nails should be trimmed so that they do not develop cellulitis or other skin infections as a result of constant skin picking; any cases of skin infection should be treated immediately using antibiotics.

Most people with Prader-Willi syndrome will need specialized care and supervision throughout their lives for continuous consultation with the doctor is required to transition medical care to adulthood.

In cases of severe skin and pinching and psychoses, Anti-depressant or anti-psychotics can be helpful. SSRIs are the antidepressants of choice. These drugs however come with associated risks, so they are generally avoided below the age of 18. Cognitive-behavioral therapy may be required in some cases. It is a talking therapy that helps to change the way the patient thinks and behaves to modify unhealthy behavioral patterns.

Patients with Prader-Willi syndrome are at risk of developing the following complications:

People with PWS, who receive early treatment usually have a normal lifespan and can function in a group home setting, perform vocational work.

People with PWS, having normal IQ can expect to accomplish many of the things their peers do. However, each person requires lifelong support from the people involved to lead an independent life.

Complications due to morbid obesity and psychological issues can affect the quality of life and sometimes shorten life expectancy in patients with PWS.

Scientists worldwide have been working on finding a permanent cure and improving the quality of life by reducing complications for PWS by carrying out various researches worldwide.

Livoletide is being monitored as a drug to reduce ghrelin and consequently hyperphagia and obesity.

A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study conducted in 2019 in 47 adults who took 3-4 mg of Livoletide once a day for two weeks, reported a significant decrease in food-related behaviors as compared to people who were given a placebo.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/prader-willi-syndrome/

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Prader-Willi Syndrome Facts: Causes, Diagnosis, Treatments and Prognosis - Gilmore Health News

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Male hypogonadism usually is treated with testosterone replacement to return testosterone levels to normal. Testosterone can help counter the signs and symptoms of male Hypogonadism, such as decreased sexual desire, decreased energy, decreased facial and body hair, and loss of muscle mass and bone density.

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Male Hypogonadism HRT Treatment Market 2020-28 booming segments, latest trends and analysis with Merck & Co, Allergan, Endo International,...

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Eduardo Rodriguez and the Boston Red Sox agreed to a one-year, $8.3-million contract for 2021, according to multiple reports on Tuesday.

The $8.3 million salary is the same the left-handed starter earned in 2020. The Red Sox beat Rodriguez at a salary arbitration hearing before the 2020 season when they filed at $8.3 million and Rodriguez filed for $8.675 million. The two sides avoided salary arbitration this offseason.

Rodriguez who is eligible for free agency after the 2021 season didnt pitch in 2020 because of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart), an after-effect of COVID-19. Rodriguez tested positive for COVID-19 before flying to Boston for summer training camp in early July. Tests in Boston revealed myocarditis. Rodriguez said he experienced every symptom of COVID.

I feel like I was 100 years old, Rodriguez said in July. My body was tired all the time. Throwing up. Headaches. Like I said, all the symptoms.

Rodriguez began throwing again in November after a lengthy recovery. He was Bostons top starter in 2019 and finished sixth in the American League Cy Young voting, going 19-6 with a 3.81 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 34 starts.

The deadline for MLB teams to tender 2021 contracts to their pre-arbitration and arbitration-eligible players is Wednesday at 8 p.m. Boston has five other arbitration-eligible players Rafael Devers, Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier, Kevin Plawecki and Austin Brice on its 40-man roster.

INDIANS-MARLINS: Cleveland sold side-arm reliever Adam Cimber to the Marlins for $100,000, and Miami designated right-hander Jos Urea for assignment.

Urea, the Marlins Opening Day starter in 2018 and 2019, spent six seasons with the Marlins and had been with them longer than any other active player. He went 0-3 with a 5.40 ERA in five starts last season, when he had a $3.75 million salary and earned $1,388,889 in prorated pay. He had been projected for a salary of about $4 million for 2021.

Cimber went 0-1 with a 3.97 ERA in 14 games this past season for Cleveland, which acquired the right-hander in 2018 from the San Diego Padres in the deal that brought All-Star closer Brad Hand to the Indians. The 30-year-old Cimber went 6-7 with a 4.30 ERA in 110 appearances with the Indians over 2 1/2 seasons. He was 6-3 in 2019, when he pitched in 68 games.

INDIANS: Rookie reliever Cam Hill underwent surgery on his right wrist after being involved in a car accident in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hill shared details of the incident on his Instagram account, saying he was very blessed to only bang up my wrist. Surgery went really well, most importantly the others involved in the accident were all okay.

Hill also posted a photo of him recovering in his hospital bed with his right arm heavily bandaged. He gave a thumbs up with his left hand.

Cleveland said Dr. Brian Chalkin, a hand specialist, operated Monday night on the right-handers lunate bone, located in the mid-carpal joint. The team said surgery went as expected and that it does not have any details yet on Hills rehab or when he might be able to pitch.

Hill made his major league debut with the Indians on July 26 and got his first save two days later against the Chicago White Sox. The 26-year-old went 2-0 with a 4.91 ERA in 18 games with Cleveland.

He made one postseason appearance, allowing three runs in Game 1 of the wild-card series against the New York Yankees.

HALL OF FAME Manager Tom Lasorda has been moved out of intensive care, although he remains hospitalized in Southern California.

Los Angeles Dodgers spokesman Steve Brener said that the teams 93-year-old former manager is doing rehab at the hospital in Orange County. Lasorda has been hospitalized since Nov. 8, although the team didnt make it public until a week later.

Lasorda attended the teams Game 6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 27 in Texas that clinched the Dodgers first World Series title since 1988.

Lasorda had a record of 1,599-1,439 while managing the Dodgers from 1976-96, guiding them to World Series championships in 1981 and 88. The franchise won four National League pennants and eight division titles under Lasorda. He had a heart attack in June 1996 and retired from managing the Dodgers the following month.

ATHLETICS: Right-hander Burch Smith agreed to a $705,000, one-year contract a day before Wednesdays deadline for teams to offer deals to unsigned players on their rosters.

Smith went 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA and a save in six outings spanning 12 innings for Oakland but was lost for the season in mid-August because of a strained forearm on his pitching side. The As missed his presence in the bullpen as they won the AL West and the wild-card round against the Chicago White Sox before losing to the rival Astros in the AL Division Series.

Also Tuesday, catcher Francisco Pena received a minor league contract. He would earn $600,000 while in the majors if added to the 40-man roster.

METS: New York reached its first agreement with a free agent since Steven Cohen bought the team, a deal with 31-year-old right-hander Trevor May, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

May had a 3.86 ERA in 24 relief appearances for the Minnesota Twins last season, striking out 38 and walking seven in 23 1/3 innings while allowing 20 hits with a career-high fastball velocity averaging 96.66 mph. He earned $816,667 in prorated pay from a salary of $2,205,000.

May had spent all six big league seasons with the Twins, going 23-21 with a 4.44 ERA in 26 starts and 189 relief appearances.

He made 16 starts in 2015, going 8-9 with a 4.00 ERA over 48 appearances. May had Tommy John surgery on March 22, 2017, and returned to the major leagues on July 31, 2018.

May figures to join a bullpen that includes Edwin Diaz, Dellin Betances, Jeurys Familia, Brad Brach and Jacob Barnes.

New Yorks front office is being run by Sandy Alderson, who returned to the Mets as team president on the day that Cohen completed his $2.42 billion purchase from the Wilpon and Katz families.

DRUG TESTS: Major League Baseballs number of drug tests dropped sharply during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

There were 3,733 urine samples and 412 blood samples for human growth hormone testing collected during the year ending with the World Series, independent program administrator Thomas M. Martin said in his annual report. That was down from 9,332 urine samples and 2,287 blood samples in the year ending with the 2019 World Series.

The lower testing numbers were a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the extended closure of the WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratory in Montreal, Martin wrote.

Spring training was interrupted in mid-March and the start of the regular season was delayed from late March until late July. Each teams schedule was cut from 162 games to 60.

There were 10 positive tests for performance-enhancing substances: two for Stanozolol (New York Mets second baseman Robinson Cano and free agent pitcher Victor Alcantara), five for Boldenone (Houston pitcher Francis Martes, Pittsburgh utilityman Pablo Reyes, Arizona infielder Domingo Leyba, Cleveland pitcher Emmanuel Clase and Pittsburgh pitcher Edgar Santana) and three for Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (DHCMT) (Colorado pitcher Justin Lawrence, Washington catcher Tres Barrera and Houston pitcher Kent Emanuel).

Ninety-one therapeutic use exemptions were granted, 90 for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and one for Hypersomnia. That was down from 94 for the previous year, which included 90 for ADHD and one each for Hypersomnia, Hypogonadism and kidney disease.

Exemptions for hyperactivity disorder had ranged from 105-119 annually from 2008-16, prompting some to criticize their issuance as too lenient.

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In its latest research titled, FSS Capacity Pricing Trends, Euroconsult, the leading global consulting firm focused on space and satellite-enabled markets, reported that the dramatic pricing declines of the past five years have slowed as a result of notable slowdowns in new capacity supply additions. However, intense pricing pressure is expected to return in advance of new capacity coming online in the 2022-23 timeframe.

Over the past five years, average capacity pricing levels in video markets have dropped 30 percent in aggregate, while data markets have experienced 60 percent declines. While pricing is beginning to stabilize, the previously strong mobility market is now seeing pricing erosion in the short term, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on global travel.

We are seeing a mixed landscape in current pricing trends, said Brent Prokosh, Senior Affiliate Consultant at Euroconsult and author of the report. Despite the generalized pricing declines globally, , strong demand for HTS capacity in places such as North America and Southeast Asia has led to regional shortages, alleviating pressure in the short-term. While fewer regions have reported sharply declining capacity pricing levels, more challenging competitive environments are reported for Latin America and the Russia & CIS regions. Further, at key orbital hotspots, Direct to Home (DTH) television platform pricing has also been notably resilient.

While DTH pricing of up to $8,000/MHz/month is still in effect in some locations, many platforms have sought to reduce their commitments through lower volume and/or shorter-term renewals. On the lower end, capacity pricing ranges have remained relatively stable over the past year, with $600/MHz/month for regular and less than $100/Mbps/month for large-volume long-term HTS capacity leases still prevailing.

In its 3rd annual edition of the report on satellite capacity pricing trends, Euroconsult provides an analysis of the structural trends impacting the industry and delves into regional pricing for nine different parts of the world. The analysis is based on an expansive database of more than 2,000 capacity pricing contracts and includes roughly 100 new price points derived from more than a dozen interviews and continuous desk research conducted over the past 12 months.

It includes capacity supply fill rates and case studies on the cost base of satellite capacity. It also breaks out pricing trends by spectrum and type of service and includes an overview of milsatcom and mobility pricing. Additionally, for the first time, this years edition of FSS Capacity Pricing Trends includes a section on in-orbit life extension services. It also provides an analysis of the cost base of capacity for nearly 40 HTS systems, including all major Very High Throughput Satellite (VHTS) systems and Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) broadband constellations.

The research projects that HTS fill rates, which are comparatively lower than regular capacity, are expected to drop from 50 percent as of 2020, to below 20 percent by 2023 with new capacity expected to come on line in that time frame. This oversupply will put further pressure on capacity pricing. As a result, Euroconsult projects that operators will seek to drive utilization of new capacity by testing the price elasticity of demand.

Another way that operators are responding to oversupply and pricing erosion is by adopting vertical integration strategies, said Prokosh. This has the potential to provide them with a higher degree of control over pricing conditions. It is an especially relevant trend, given expectations that competition will continue driving the benefits of lower cost base of capacity towards end user services as opposed to the tradition FSS operator wholesale lease model.

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Satellite capacity pricing declines slow, but price pressure expected to increase with new supply entering service in 2023 - Geospatial World

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The lame-duck Trump administration is defying precedent by pressing ahead with a fiscal 2022 defense budget request, and could release it before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

The White House Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon are going back and forth over various items. While the incoming Biden team will likely redo parts of the budget to reflect its own priorities, large portions developed by Trumps Pentagon team are sure to make it into Bidens proposal, which we probably wont see until the spring.

So lets go through whats inside Trumps fiscal 2022 request. My colleague Katie Bo Williams got a copy of the passback a document sent from the White House Office of Management and Budget ordering Pentagon planners to modify their proposal. Defense officials are due to respond with objections or changes this week. A few caveats: this is just a draft, as of earlier this week, and not a finished product. Also, the draft passback document rarely says what the original proposed amounts were, just the changes OMB wants made.

The Topline

The proposed $722 billion spending plan is exactly in line with the five-year budget projections included in Trumps 2021 proposal. Its a 2.3 percent increase over the $705 billion requested for 2021. Top Pentagon leaders have frequently lobbied for 3 percent to 5 percent annual growth. Something else worth noting is that the Trump administration has reduced the Overseas Contingency Operations, or war, portion of the budget from $69 billion in 2021 to roughly $16 billion in 2022. The remaining $706 billion is in the base budget. As usual, the topline figure does not include the Energy Department nuclear weapons spending or various pots of national security spending in other agencies budgets.

Missile Defense

The suggested Missile Defense Agency budget for 2022 is $9.3 billion (about $241 million more than planned), and $52.3 billion over five years (a plus-up of about $4.8 billion). OMB asked MDA to consider putting more money toward a proposed homeland-defense anti-missile layer based on the Aegis system. It also suggests a $1.8 billion plus-up over five years to the Next Generation Interceptor program. That money would fund two contractors through Critical Design Review (CDR) in early FY 2026 rather than just through [preliminary design review], the draft passback memo said. The NGI program is already high-risk, and the best mitigation is keeping two contractors through CDR. Theres also a recommendation for $203 million in fiscal 2022 (and $1.5 billion over five years) for countering hypersonic weapons. The 2022 money would be used to accelerate development and testing of a hypersonic glide phase defeat weapon, associated systems engineering, and integration into Aegis ballistic missile defense weapon systems to defeat adversarial hypersonic threats.

Missiles

OMB wants the Pentagon to spend at least $150 million in 2022 to demonstrate the Mobile Intermediate Range Missile (MIRM) variant to maintain development and testing of a viable ballistic option for future consideration.

Research and Development Priorities

OMB called for increases in Pentagons artificial intelligence and biotechnology research funding, as well as quantum information science.

F-35

The passback reveals a Pentagon proposal to reduce the planned purchase of F-35 Lightning II fighters over the next five years by 40, and use the funds to pay for other items related to the program. The Department should fund all F-35 program cost increases from within the program by reducing the corresponding number of F-35 aircraft to be procured in the FY 2022-26 [future years defense program] to offset those program cost increases, the memo says. The Pentagon is also proposing to cap annual F-35 purchases at 85 jets. Air Force and Navy 2021 budget documents show the Pentagon had planned to buy 85 F-35s, but then increase production to 94 jets in 2023 and 2024 and 96 jets in 2025. OMB directs that reductions to the planned fleet must be based on a strategic risk and capability analysis of the need for the F-35 in the most stressing contingency and that such an analysis is vital to obtain support for any proposed reductions to the fleet. The Department, therefore, shall provide to OMB a dynamic analysis of the ability and risks associated with the planned TACAIR fleet to prevail against expected threats in the Pacific theater in 2030 and 2040 with moderate risk.

Operation & Maintenance Cuts

The White House also asked individual services to trim their proposed operation and maintenance budget: the Army by $2.3 billion to $56.4 billion; the Air Force, $2.5 billion to $52.5 billion; and the Marine Corps, $457 million to $8.8 billion.

Navy

OMB forbids the Navy to go through with its plans to decommission five cruisers over the next five years, a measure that was meant to save some $1.9 billion. It also says the Navy must keep around two fast-attack submarines it planned to decommission in fiscal 2027. The bill for that is $710 million. OMB also orders the Navy to assess all Large Surface Combatants for maximum life extension opportunities after 2026.

Air Force Advanced Battle Management

OMB calls for a $137 million cut from an undisclosed amount in 2022 to the high-profile project known as ABMS. It also recommends a $200 million cut in 2023 and 2024. It was critical of the Air Force, citing a critical Government Accountability Office report released earlier this year.

Space

OMB says its concerned about FY 2020 and FY 2021 congressional marks against the Space Development Agency, the fast-buying satellite shop created by defense leaders less than two years ago. The Pentagon had proposed a precipitous increase in the organizations funding in 2022, which OMB recommends cutting by $200 million (the document does not say how much money SDA is asking for total). It also recommended $200 million in cuts in both 2023 and 2024.

Personnel

OMB directed the Pentagon to include a 2.7 percent pay raise for the military. Thats down from the 3 percent annual increase that the Trump administration requested for fiscal 2021.

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Some of the numbers are "fabricated," says one official. But they shed light on GOP lines of attack awaiting Biden.

A Trump appointee wants Air National Guard planes sent to the state that holds the key to Senate control.

Defense Department-led pursuits of next-generation connectivity will hone in on survivability, security, and innovation.

The good news:it appears people should start getting coronavirus vaccines later this month. The bad news: itll take awhile to inoculate enough people to reduce the risk of transmission. This week, the Association of the U.S. Army canceled its annual Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, scheduled for March. It will instead host a virtual event similar to what it did for its typically massive in-person October event. The Air Force Association is still scheduled to host an annual in-person conference in Orlando, Florida, in February.

Related: The pandemic could cut business travel 36 percent permanently, the Wall Street Journal reports. You can thank the technology that weve all become more accustomed to using over the past nine months for that.

Now the question remains whether President Trump will veto the bipartisan fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The President wants the bill to repeal a law that protects social media companies, whichas Senate Armed Services Committee Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said has nothing to do with the military.

The U.K.-based defense and security intelligence organization that owns the storied defense journal has purchased the defense market analysis business of D.C.-based consulting firm Avascent. The deal between Janes and Avascent also includes a collaboration agreement through which the two firms can pursue opportunities where their joint capabilities will provide clients with unparalleled insights and advice on critical defence and security issues, Janes said in a statement.

Lockheed Martin has completed its acquisition of Integration Innovation Inc.s (i3) hypersonics business. This acquisition expands Lockheed Martin's capabilities to design, develop and produce integrated hypersonic weapon systems for its customers, Lockheed said. Former i3 CEO Mike Wicks has been named vice president of the Hypersonic Engineering & Accelerated Technologies program within the Hypersonic Strike Portfolio for Lockheed Martin Space.

Speaking of hypersonics: the U.S. and Australian militaries have announced a bilateral effort to advance the development of air-breathing hypersonic technologies, the Pentagon said. The SCIFiRE effort aims to cooperatively advance air-breathing hypersonic technologies into full-size prototypes that are affordable and provide a flexible, long range capability, culminating in flight demonstrations in operationally relevant conditions. The effort will also pursue potential co-production opportunities between the two countries, and leverages U.S. and Australian collaborative hypersonic activities over the last 15 years, namely the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) program.

The defense giant and Silicon Valley firm have formed an alliance to develop artificial intelligence solutions for aerospace and defense missions for government customers, including the U.S. Air Force and intelligence community.

Expect to hear lots of calls opposing the proposed F-35 fighter, MQ-9 drone and missile sale to UAE in advance of an expected U.S. Congress vote on the arms deal. Heres a list of some of the groups opposing the sale.

The U.S. Navy awarded BAE Systems a $197 million deal to drydock and modernize the amphibious assault ship. Hull, tank and mechanical work at BAEs Norfolk, Virginia, shipyards is expected to begin in February. If the Navy exercises additional options, the upgrade contract could increase to $237.7 million, according to the company.

Meanwhile, the Navy will decommission the USS Bonhomme Richard, the amphibious assault ship heavily damaged in a fire earlier this year.

The German military placed a $3.2 billion order for 31 NH90 helicopters. The helicopters jointly built by Airbus, Leonardo and Fokker will be used for shipborne operations with the German navy. They will replace Sea the Lynx Mk88A fleet, which entered into service in 1981.

Germanys Rheinmetall and the Czechoslovak Group signed a pact to collaborate on military vehicles. Under this new strategic partnership, both companies want to enable the transfer of defence technology between Germany and the Czech Republic in order to implement projects in the Visegrad states as well as other countries, Rheinmetall said.

President Trump on Monday nominated Scott OGrady, a former F-16 pilot shot down over Bosnia in 1995, to be the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

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Team Trump's 2022 budget plan; COVID canks conference; Raytheon, C3.ai team up; and more. - Defense One

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When you hear the word "conservation" you might think about newt-counting or anti-fracking actions. What you probably dont think about is blowing up Jupiter and using its raw materials to build a megastructure enveloping the Sun.

But this is exactly the idea suggested by the ingenious astrophysicist Freeman Dyson back in 1960. He suggested that we could construct a swarm of solar panels enclosing our sun, capturing all its energy. Dyson reasoned that as humans use more and more energy, eventually we are going to outrun what can be captured on Earth alone. Only by expanding the energy metabolism of our civilization beyond our planet could we avoid catastrophic resource exhaustion.

Nowadays, scientists dont think this would require demolishing Jupiter. Anders Sandberg, senior researcher at Oxford Universitys Future of Humanity Institute, explains that it turns out making a sphere from thin metal foil made out of asteroids is way easier. One benefit is that we dont need to disassemble planets, he explains over Skype.

Fortunately, it also turns out that there are more than enough asteroids in the Solar System to make that much foil.

Sandberg explains that such ambitious projects would ultimately provide ways to maintain things we value. If we value biology and biodiversity, then we should preserve it from losses, whether caused by mass extinctions or human stupidity," Sandberg said. But this also means encouraging growth. If biodiversity is good, then we want more of it, and for ecosystems to stick around longer. To this end, Sandberg refers to ideas like Dysons as space gardening. Because, in short, they would grant the ability to cultivate life beyond Earth and spread it throughout the Solar System.

Sandbergs plan for gardening space is new, but the idea that humanity should harness more of the sun to increase the amount of living things is an old one. In 1900, the Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla decided that the greatest problem of science is increasing the total energy flowing through human civilization. Because, he thought, with more energy, we could banish scarcity and live fuller lives.

Tesla didnt propose exactly how to solve this, but he knew what the solution would roughly look like. It will, he said, ultimately involve increasing the amount of the suns energy we can put to use. Because, he figured, almost all complex and valuable thingsfrom ecosystems to sentient brainsrun on solar power. Civilization is just like a big plant: consuming sunlight in the indirect form of crops or coal.

A few years before Tesla, a self-taught genius living in a modest shack in rural Russia had already considered the same problem. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who helped invent the rocket, did the math and estimated that our biosphere intercepts only about 4x10-10 of the suns total output. All the rest is squandered, pumped into frozen space. Thats a lot of waste.

Tsiolkovsky proposed a bold solution. He suggested that, in the far future, humans might rearrange the entire Solar System. At first, we could string together "necklaces of asteroids" into sun-girdling halos that could harvest more outgoing light. Later, we could reshape the mass of the planetsinto "cubes, discs, rings"for the same purpose. Then we could harness almost all the Sun.

Tsiolkovsky wanted to do this primarily because he wanted to spread life through the Solar System. At the moment, biology is stuck on one fragile planet. His motivations were, at heart, green: he thought a Solar System with more ecology was better than the current one which is almost entirely barren. Why not turn void and desert into a garden?

In ensuing decades, other scientistslike Vladimir Vernadskywarned that the only way for humanity to ultimately avoid resource depletion would be to wean ourselves off meat and oil and somehow come to feed off the sun directly. This would phase out the inefficiency and immorality of more indirect methods, such as fossil fuels or food chains, they insisted.

Dyson, writing during the 1960s, was driven by similar motivations. Of course, some people didnt like his suggestion of urbanizing a star. One suspicious journalist at the time complained that Dysons spheres would turn stars into traffic lights. But Dyson himself conceived of them as living systems, or artificial biospheres," not industrial disruptions. He said that bringing the Solar System to life in this way would be the stepping stone towards spreading biology to other stars and ultimately greening the galaxy.

But what about plans for space gardening today? Going through a menu of plausible options, Sandberg points first to what he calls biosphere life extension. Our planets biosphere is resilient, but not immortal: in around a billion years our planet will become uninhabitable by natural causes like the expansion of our sun. However, Sandberg and his colleague Karim Jebari, of Swedens Institute for Future Studies, argue that putting solar shields into orbit could protect the biosphere from being scorched as the sun ages. This could prolong the existence of life on our planet for at least another billion years, Sandberg tells me.

Of course, many people in environmental ethics would say, Wait a minute, this stuff is very extreme: theres a lot of hubris involved in trying to control the climate. But we are already messing with the climate of the planet, so we are already altering it regardless," he said.

Say you are an ecocentrist, or someone who cares about ecosystems (including Earth as a whole) beyond any use or value for humans. Even for the staunchest ecocentrist, the potential for using technology to extend the entire biospheres lifespan provides a great reason to keep humans around rather than hoping they go extinct, because they actually are the only species around that can handle the solar radiation and keep ecosystems alive longer term," says Sandberg.

So "gardening" could involve extending the lifespan of Earth. But what about extending life beyond Earth? A first step would be creating conditions for life to persist in space environments on its own, Sandberg explains. He imagines space stations with hydroponic gardens mining asteroids to build more space stations with hydroponic gardens, and this form of habitat filling up the Solar System.

This would be a revolution in the history of life. Life would now actually have the vacuum of space as an ecological niche. Someone could object that there is an awful lot of steel and plastic, compared to flowers, in that vision, he admits. But it is really just some asteroid material getting turned into protective habitats for life. Thats a form of space gardening.

We can think of grander visions. Since Gerard ONeil, scientists have imagined larger space habitats, housing whole ecosystems. Not just trays of hydroponic plants, but actual functioning forests," says Sandberg.

Fully engineered environments like these would allow not just for copies of ecosystems on Earth but experimenting with alternate ones. Indeed, rather than focusing on making other planets Earth-likeor terraforming themSandberg suggests it might make more sense to simply make other planets amenable to biology without necessarily having humans deciding whats there.

Finally, theres the really radical proposals. How about life that thrives within the vacuum of space?

Dyson once spoke about genetically engineering plants capable of living on comets, without atmosphere. Sandberg said that he is skeptical of this idea, but if anyone did manage it, there might be no stopping it.

They would be bound to spread to other Solar Systems in the really long run. And, at that point, theres of course going to be a greening of the galaxyregardless of whether we are planning it or not," he said.

How long might greening the entire galaxy take? If the spores are left to drift and spread passively by their own accord, this could take around two billion years, which is a bit slow by human standards. But, on the standard of the galaxy itself, thats only around about 8 galactic rotations; thats not an enormous amount of time to go from a galaxy that doesnt have life in lots of corners to one that does," he added.

But it's also possible that intelligent life might intervene and help speed up this greening process. This could take as little as 100,000 years. If that happens, then we could be poised for a "phase transition" between a mostly dead and a mostly living Milky Way. Indeed, Sandberg and others are skeptical that our galaxy is already green or has been greened by anyone else.

Given that we may potentially have the technology to send out spores in a few decades, we had better decide on the ethics of doing so soon, because people may try regardless of if a framework exists or not. We might, say, want to throw in a bit of intelligence and designso its more of a garden than a wilderness red in tooth and clawor it might be that we decide to let evolution take its course, Sandberg muses.

Of course, building sun-sapping spheres and seeding the galactic volume might seem ambitious. But, ultimately, if we want to safeguard a future for ecosystems within the universe in the longer term, then it might just be that gardening space and farming the stars is the only genuinely conservationist route.

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Researchers Think Megastructures Can Help Seed Life Throughout the Galaxy - VICE

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

A recent market study published by Reports Monitor consists of a detailed evaluation of the key market dynamics. The report provides past as well as present growth parameters of the global Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) Market. The report features important and unique factors, which are expected to significantly impact the growth of the global Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) Market throughout the forecast period 2020-2025.

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The report begin with a scope of the global Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) Market that includes the key findings and essential statistics of the market. This market research report also consists of the market value of the major segments of the global Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) Market. Reports Monitor has found a detailed classification and the definition of the global market that helps the readers to better understand the basic information of the Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) Market. It also highlights the exclusions and inclusions that help the client to understand the scope of the Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) Market.

In Chapter 4 and 14.1, on the basis of types, the Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) market from 2015 to 2025 is primarily split into:PowderTabletsOthers

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North America(United States, Canada, and Mexico)Europe(Germany, France, UK, Russia, and Italy)Asia-Pacific(China, Japan, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, etc.)Middle East and Africa(Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa)

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Dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) Market 2020-2025 with Growth Factors and Trends with Focusing Key players like BulkSupplements, Natrol, Jarrow Formulas,...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

HealthA new stem cell treatment could restore eyesight in some people

Friday, 4th December 2020, 3:18 pm

Researchers discovered that the cells of damaged retinas could be repaired by injecting genetically modified stem cells into the eye.

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The news comes as comedian Al Murray pushed for stem cell donors to come forward, ahead of a charity gig for blood cancer organisation DKMS.

Heres everything you need to know about the scientific discovery - and how you can donate your own stem cells to save the lives of people with blood cell diseases.

Stem cells are produced by bone marrow, and they have the ability to grow into different types of blood cells such as red and white blood cells and platelets.

A stem cell or bone marrow transplant replaces damaged blood cells with healthy ones and can be used to treat conditions affecting the blood cells, like leukaemia and lymphoma.

The transplant involves destroying the unhealthy blood cells and replacing them with the stem cells removed from the blood or bone marrow.

Often, stem cells are taken from one person - usually a close family member or a match with the same or similar tissue type - and they are transferred to the person that needs them.

How could they be used to treat vision damage?

Researchers in Barcelona recently discovered that modified stem cells could potentially help to cure problems with vision.

They found that the cells of damaged eye retinas send out a rescue signal to attract the stem cells that can repair damage.

Stem cells were genetically engineered to make them more sensitive to those signals.

The modified stem cells were transplanted back into mice and human tissue samples and the researchers found that they flocked to the retina cells in large numbers.

In turn, that kept the tissue of the retina alive and functioning.

The new technique is a breakthrough in stem cell research as it suggests stem cells could help to improve sight, and potentially could cure blindness in the future.

Retinal damage is currently incurable and can cause visual disabilities and blindness, especially in older people.

How can stem cells treat conditions?

Stem cells can already be used to treat a number of conditions where the bone marrow is damaged and unable to produce its own healthy blood cells.

Transplants can be used to treat people suffering from different forms of cancer, with someone elses tem cells replacing the patients blood cells that are damaged or destroyed.

Conditions that stem cell transplants can treat include leukemia and lymphoma, which are cancers affecting white blood cells, myeloma, which affects plasma cells, severe aplastic anaemia (bone marrow failure), and other blood disorders.

A stem cell transplant will usually only be carried out if other treatments have been exhausted, but it could save someones life.

How can I donate stem cells?

When its not possible to use someones own stem cells to treat their condition, they need to come from a donor.

However, to improve the chances of the transplant being successful, the donated cells need to have a very similar genetic marker to the patients.

As the number of donors has recently decreased, charities are urgently encouraging healthy people to donate stem cells.

You are able to register to be a donor on the NHS Blood and Transplant website.

The Anthony Nolan charity also takes sign ups, and is specifically looking for younger donors between age 16 and 30.

You will be asked to fill out an application form and will be sent a swab pack so you can be added to the register.

If you ever come up as a match for a patient, you will be contacted by the charity.

Even if you cant join the register, you can donate to Anthony Nolan to help to grow the stem cell register.

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How do you donate stem cells? Donating cells can help treat cancer, blindness and other conditions - heres how - The Scotsman

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Groundbreaking research in stem cells has propelled scientists understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parksinsons. Could stem cell therapies one day help cure Alzheimers?

Clinical trials of stem cell therapies are now underway to repair the damaged cells of people with Parkinsons disease and age-related macular degeneration. Being Patient spoke with Jack Price, professor of developmental neurobiology at Kings College London and author of the book The Future of Brain Repair, about the potential and challenges of repairing the brain with stem cell therapy.

Being Patient: What is stem cell therapy?

Prof. Jack Price: Its the transplantation of stem cells, either directly into the brain or in a way that gives them access to the brain and influence the brain, to bring about a therapeutic effect.

Being Patient: Are there stem cells in the brain?

Prof. Jack Price: For many years, neuroscientists didnt think there were stem cells in the brain. We now know there are. We know about a population [of stem cells] thats become very important in our understanding of Alzheimers disease and in mood disorders like anxiety and depression. These are stem cells that are found in a part of the brain called the hippocampus.

But by and large, the brain doesnt have stem cells, unlike skin and other tissues in the body. The blood is the classic [example]: Theres a population of stem cells in the bone marrow that regenerates blood all the time.

Being Patient: What makes stem cells so special and why are they a focus of research?

Prof. Jack Price: The definition of stem cells is a population of cells that gives rise to other types of cells. In neural stem cells, precursor cells can make adult brain cells, nerve cells, glial cells, all the different cell types that make up the brain. If you have a disease like Alzheimers or any other neurodegenerative disease, where we know the key pathology is the loss of nerve cells, your brain doesnt normally have the ability to replace those lost brain cells. The idea was [that] if you put stem cells where the loss of brain cells has taken place, maybe those stem cells would replace the lost cells.

Being Patient: What is the potential of stem cell therapy in treating neurodegenerative diseases?

Prof. Jack Price: Theres a piece of absolutely brilliant stem cell science that was done by Shinya Yamanaka in Kyoto in 2006. He showed you could effectively take any cell through a very straightforward genetic manipulation that he discovered, [and] turn them into what we call pluripotent stem cells, which are cells that can make any cell type in the body. They also have an ability that other stem cells generally dont: They can build tissue. If you grow them in a little culture dish, they can start to make little pieces of brain called organoids or cerebroids. This was a groundbreaking technology.

In Parkinsons disease, theres enormous progress and clinical trials are underway now. We know more about the pathology of Parkinsons disease [than in Alzheimers]. The pathology of Alzheimers turns out to be quite complex, and weve had, over the years, quite a few ideas about how it worked. But [turning] those into actual therapies hasnt quite worked as we expected, and we keep having to go back and rethink whats going on in Alzheimers.

The pathology of Parkinsons disease is also difficult. Its not trivial. But at the same time, one thing is clear: a lot of the pathology is associated with the loss of a particular population of nerve cells the midbrain dopaminergic cells. We can start with these pluripotent stem cells and make them make precisely the right type of dopaminergic cell that we know is lost in Parkinsons disease.

This is built on 30 [to] 40 years of research of people trying to find exactly the right cell type to work [with] in Parkinsons disease. They had some early success and fell backwards. But this technology looks much more precise than everything anybodys ever tried before.

In age-related macular degeneration, the disease of the eye where you lose your retinal photoreceptors, there are very clever strategies now where people are using these pluripotent stem cells to make a thing called a retinal pigment epithelium. It lies behind the retina, but its what supports the photoreceptors. It turns out, thats what goes wrong in age-related macular degeneration.

Being Patient: Are there any stem cell therapy approved to treat brain disorders?

Prof. Jack Price: There are no licensed stem cell therapy for any brain disorders anywhere in the world for the simple reason [that] nobody has shown one works. There are a lot of stem cell clinics in the U.S. and somewhat fewer elsewhere who are offering cell therapies that are untested. Theyll put stem cells into you for any disorder youve got. Those cell therapies do not work.

A lot of genuine companies are trying to get these cell therapies to work in clinical trials and falling flat on their face quite often, despite their best efforts. 90% of clinical trials fail, and thats clinical trials of conventional drugs by drug companies that know what theyre doing.

What do you suppose is the chance with a stem cell therapy [that] we dont really understand how it works, [that] we dont quite know how to manufacture it properly, [and that] we dont quite know what cells we really want, of working? The chance is almost zero.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Contact Nicholas Chan at nicholas@beingpatient.com

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Repairing the Brain With Stem Cells? A Conversation With Prof. Jack Price - Being Patient

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An effective new treatment to restore vision is on the horizon that works by injecting genetically modified stem cells into the eye to mend the damaged retina.

Researchers found that the cells of damaged retinas send out a rescue signal to attract the stem cells that repair eye damage.

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They identified two of these cell signals known as Ccr5 and Cxcr6 and then genetically engineered the stem cells to make them more sensitive to those signals.

When these modified stem cells were transplanted back into mice and human tissue samples in the lab they flocked to the retina cells in much greater numbers, keeping the tissue of the damaged retina alive and functioning.

The technique holds promise for improving sight in people with poor vision and potentially even to cure blindness altogether but the researchers cautioned that any such development was some years away and required much bigger studies to confirm their findings.

One of the main hurdles in using stem cells to treat damaged eyesight is low cell migration and integration in the retina, says Pia Cosma, at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona.

After the cells are transplanted they need to reach the retina and integrate through its layers. Here we have found a way to enhance this process using stem cells commonly found in the bone marrow, but in principle can be used with any transplanted cells, Dr Cosma said.

There is still considerable work to be done, but our findings could make stem cell transplants a feasible and realistic option for treating visual impairment and restoring eyesight, she said.

Retinal damage, which is currently incurable, inevitably leads to visual disabilities and in most cases blindness. With a growing and ageing population, the number of people affected by retinal damage is estimated to increase dramatically over the next few decades.

Stem cell therapies have been touted as one way of treating degenerative retinal conditions. Stem cells can be transplanted into the eye, releasing therapeutic molecules with neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties that promote the survival, proliferation and self-repair of retinal cells. The stem cells can also generate new retinal cells, replacing lost or damaged ones.

The researchers used mesenchymal stem cells, which are found in bone marrow and can differentiate into lots of types of cells, including retinal cells that respond to light.

Mesenchymal stem cells can also be easily grown outside an organism, providing abundant starting material for transplantation compared to other cell sources such as hematopoietic stem cells.

The study is published in the journal Molecular Therapy.

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Treatment to restore vision by injecting stem cells into the eye could help people with damaged eyesight - iNews

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This article was originally published here

J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2020 Nov 30:JPET-AR-2020-000277. doi: 10.1124/jpet.120.000277. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

ONO-4641 is a second-generation sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator that exhibits selectivity for S1P receptors 1 and 5. Treatment with ONO-4641 leads to a reduction in magnetic resonance imaging disease measures in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The objective of this study was to explore the potential impact of ONO-4641 treatment based on its immunomodulatory effects. Severe aplastic anemia is a bone marrow (BM) failure disease, typically caused by aberrant immune destruction of blood progenitors. Although the T helper type-1-mediated pathology is well described for aplastic anemia, the molecular mechanisms driving disease progression remain undefined. We evaluated the efficacy of ONO-4641 in a mouse model of aplastic anemia. ONO-4641 reduced the severity of BM failure in a dose-dependent manner, resulting in higher blood and BM cell counts. By evaluating the mode of action, we found that ONO-4641 inhibited the infiltration of donor-derived T lymphocytes to the BM. ONO-4641 also induced the accumulation of hematopoietic stem cells in the BM of mice. These observations indicate, for the first time, that S1P receptor modulators demonstrate efficacy in the mouse model of aplastic anemia and suggest that treatment with ONO-4641 might delay the progression of aplastic anemia. Significance Statement ONO-4641 is a second-generation sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator selective for S1P receptors 1 and 5. In this study, we demonstrated that ONO-4641 regulates the trafficking of T lymphocytes along with hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells leading to alleviation of pancytopenia and destruction of bone marrow in a bone marrow failure-induced mouse model mimicking human aplastic anemia.

PMID:33257316 | DOI:10.1124/jpet.120.000277

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Sphingosine 1-phosphate Receptor Modulator ONO-4641 Regulates Trafficking of T Lymphocytes and Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Alleviates Immune-Mediated...

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Newswise Researchers from The University of Kansas Cancer Center are involved in the presentation of nearly 50 research studies at the 62ndAmerican Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, to be held virtually Dec. 5-8 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With more than 18,000 members from nearly 100 countries, the ASH is the world's largest professional society serving both clinicians and scientists around the world who are working to conquer blood diseases.

The KU Cancer Center is one of only 71 cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute because they meet rigorous standards for transdisciplinary, state-of-the-art research focused on developing new and better approaches to preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer. Its catchment area includes the state of Kansas as well as western Missouri.

These 49 research studies represent the hard work of our many researchers focused on blood diseases, said Roy Jensen, M.D., director of the KU Cancer Center. This includes innovations in immunotherapy, advances in leukemia and significant work in stem cell transplants. While the conference is virtual this year, the KU Cancer Center will be well represented.

While a full list of abstracts involving KU Cancer Center researchers can be found online, three of the most significant are listed below.

# # #

About The University of Kansas Cancer Center:

The University of Kansas Cancer Center is transforming cancer research and clinical care by linking an innovative approach to drug discovery, delivery and development to a nationally-accredited patient care program. Our consortium center includes cancer research and health care professionals associated with the University of Kansas Medical Center and The University of Kansas Health System; the University of Kansas, Lawrence; The Stowers Institute for Medical Research; Childrens Mercy; and in partnership with members of the Masonic Cancer Alliance.

About the University of Kansas Medical Center:

The University of Kansas Medical Centers mission is to educate exceptional health care professionals through a full range of undergraduate, graduate, professional, postdoctoral and continuing education programs in the schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions. KU Medical Center also advances the health sciences through world-class research programs; provides compassionate and state-of-the-art patient care in an academic medical center environment; and works with communities in every Kansas county to improve the health of Kansans.

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Cancer center is a contributor to 49 research studies at the 62nd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting - Newswise

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NEW YORK, Dec. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IN8bio, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative allogeneic, autologous and genetically modified gamma-delta T cell therapies for the treatment of cancers (IN8bio or the Company), today announced an upcoming presentation that provides an update of the ongoing Phase I clinical trial of their product candidate INB-100 at the 62nd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition (ASH), which will take place virtually from December 5 to 8, 2020. INB-100 is designed for the treatment of patients with leukemia undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with haploidentical donors.

The poster and accompanying narrated slide presentation is titled, First-in-Human Phase I Trial of Adoptive Immunotherapy with Ex Vivo Expanded and Activated gamma delta T-Cells Following Haploidentical Bone Marrow Transplantation and Post-BMT Cyclophosphamide and reviews the study design and provides a brief update on enrollment and patient status.

The company reported that, as of abstract submission, three female subjects with acute leukemia had been enrolled in the INB-100 Phase 1 trial, of whom two had been dosed, and that no treatment-related adverse events had been recorded. The trial is continuing to enroll and treat patients. The abstract for the presentation can be found at https://ash.confex.com/ash/2020/webprogram/Paper142876.html.

The poster and slide presentation are jointly authored by the scientific and physician investigators from IN8bio and The University of Kansas Cancer Center (KU Cancer Center), and will be presented by the studys Principal Investigator, Dr. Joseph McGuirk, Schutte-Speas Professor of Hematology-Oncology, Division Director of Hematological Malignancies and Cellular Therapeutics and Medical Director, Blood and Marrow Transplant at KU Cancer Center.

This preliminary data report from KU Cancer Center with our allogeneic product candidate, INB-100, demonstrates the absence of significant GvHD in these initial patients, said William Ho, Chief Executive Officer of IN8bio. This suggests that gamma delta T-cells delivered as an off-the-shelf allogeneic cell therapy may be well tolerated and have significant potential to treat patients with serious and life-threatening cancers.

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Dr. McGuirk, commented, Potentially curative stem cell transplants using partially matched donors -- called haploidentical transplants have greatly expanded access to stem cell transplantation. The infusion of donor-derived gamma delta T-cells from the stem cell donor, offers the hope of diminishing this risk of relapse and curing more patients.

About IN8bioIN8bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapies for the treatment of cancers, including solid tumors, by employing allogeneic, autologous and genetically modified gamma-delta T cells. IN8bios technology incorporates drug-resistant immunotherapy (DRI), which has been shown in preclinical studies to function in combination with therapeutic levels of chemotherapy. IN8bio is currently conducting two investigator-initiated Phase 1 clinical trials for its lead gamma-delta T cell product candidates: INB-200 for the treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma, which is a difficult to treat brain tumor that progresses rapidly, and INB-100 for the treatment of patients with acute leukemia undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. For more information about the Company and its programs, visit http://www.IN8bio.com.

Forward Looking StatementsCertain statements herein concerning the Companys future expectations, plans and prospects, including without limitation, the Companys current expectations regarding the curative potential of its product candidates, constitute forward-looking statements. The use of words such as may, might, will, should, expect, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, project, intend, future, potential, or continue, the negative of these and other similar expressions are intended to identify such forward looking statements. Such statements, based as they are on the current expectations of management, inherently involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, many of which are beyond the Companys control. Consequently, actual future results may differ materially from the anticipated results expressed in such statements. Specific risks which could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companys current expectations include: scientific, regulatory and technical developments; failure to demonstrate safety, tolerability and efficacy; final and quality controlled verification of data and the related analyses; expense and uncertainty of obtaining regulatory approval, including from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and the Companys reliance on third parties, including licensors and clinical research organizations. Do not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements included herein, which speak only as of the date hereof and which the Company is under no obligation to update or revise as a result of any event, circumstances or otherwise, unless required by applicable law.

Contact:IN8bio, Inc.Kate Rochlin, Ph.D.+1 646.933.5605info@IN8bio.com

Investor Contact:Julia Balanova+ 1 646.378.2936jbalanova@soleburytrout.com

Media Contact:Ryo Imai / Robert Flamm, Ph.D.Burns McClellan, Inc.212-213-0006 ext. 315 / 364Rimai@burnsmc.com / rflamm@burnsmc.com

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IN8bio announces first-in-human Phase 1 trial Update from The University of Kansas Cancer Center using INB-100, IN8bios Gamma Delta T-cell product...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Final Report will add the analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on this industry.

According to the latest industry research Bone Marrow Transplant Market share is predicted to gain better growth in upcoming years. Global Bone Marrow Transplant market report is one of the best sources of research data which provided by industry experts. Report gives facts about Covid-19 impact, geographical breakdown, top manufactures, type wise and applications wise segmentation. In Bone Marrow Transplant market report the growth rate, revenue, market shares, sales, production, consumption, manufacturers in particular areas are regionally analysed.

Experts also states challenges, risks, driving factors, trends, opportunities in Bone Marrow Transplant market so the investors, new participants, and stakeholders get good clarification with Bone Marrow Transplant market industry.

Get a Sample Copy of the Report at- https://www.industryresearch.co/enquiry/request-sample/13652362

Bone marrow transplant refers to the replacement of diseased or damaged bone marrow with healthy tissue or bone marrow stem cells in order to treat blood cancer or various cases of anemia. Depending on the source of bone marrow or stem cells, bone marrow transplant procedures are classified as peripheral stem cell transplant (PSCT) or conventional bone marrow transplant.

Bone Marrow Transplant Industry Segmentation:

Bone Marrow Transplant Market by Top Manufacturers:Lonza Group Ltd., Merck Millipore Corporation., Sanofi-Aventis LLC., AllCells LLC., STEMCELL Technologies., American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) Inc. By ProcedureAutologous Bone Marrow Transplant, Allogeneic Bone Marrow TransplantBy Disease IndicationLeukemia, Lymphoma, Myeloma, Myelodysplasia, Myeloproliferative Neoplasms, Aplastic Anemia, Solid tumors, Sickle cell Anemia, OthersBy End UserHospitals, Multispecialty Clinics, Ambulatory Surgical Centers

The study procedure elaborates the analysis of several features affecting the industry, with the government policy, Bone Marrow Transplant market forecast environment, technological innovation, competitive landscape, historical data, present trends in the market, forthcoming technologies and the technical progress in associated industry.

What the Bone Marrow Transplant Market Trend Report Offers:

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Bone Marrow Transplant market report is outcome of comprehensive primary and secondary research accepted by analysts having years of experience in the Bone Marrow Transplant industry. All the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry have been covered and the collected information has been examined and accessible in the form of easily understandable charts, graphs and tables.

In addition, report analyses Bone Marrow Transplant market size and forecast of product, region and application and different analysis essentials like type section, business section, channel segment etc. cover totally different segment market size, each volume and value. Moreover, cover different industries clients data, that is incredibly necessary for the manufacturers.

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Detailed TOC of 2019-2024 Global and Regional Bone Marrow Transplant Industry Production, Sales and Consumption Status and Prospects Professional Market Research Report

Chapter 1 Bone Marrow Transplant Industry Overview

1.1 Definition

1.2 Brief Introduction by Major Type

1.3 Brief Introduction by Major Application

1.4 Brief Introduction by Major Regions

1.4.1 United States

1.4.2 Europe

1.4.3 China

1.4.4 Japan

1.4.5 India

Chapter 2 Production Bone Marrow Transplant Market Analysis

2.1 Global Production Market Analysis

2.1.1 2012-2017 Global Capacity, Production, Capacity Utilization Rate, Ex-Factory Price, Revenue, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis

2.1.2 2012-2017 Major Manufacturers Performance and Market Share

2.2 Regional Production Market Analysis

2.2.1 2012-2017 Regional Market Performance and Market Share

2.2.2 United States Market

2.2.3 Europe Market

2.2.4 China Market

2.2.5 Japan Market

2.2.6 India Market

2.2.7 Rest Regions Market

Chapter 3 Bone Marrow Transplant Sales Market Analysis

3.1 Global Sales Market Analysis

3.1.1 2012-2017 Global Sales Volume, Sales Price and Sales Revenue Analysis

3.1.2 2012-2017 Major Manufacturers Performance and Market Share

3.2 Regional Sales Market Analysis

3.2.1 2012-2017 Regional Market Performance and Market Share

3.2.2 United States Market

3.2.3 Europe Market

3.2.4 China Market

3.2.5 Japan Market

3.2.6 India Market

3.2.7 Rest Regions Market

Chapter 4 Consumption Market Analysis

4.1 Global Consumption Market Analysis

4.1.1 2012-2017 Global Consumption Volume Analysis

4.2 Regional Consumption Market Analysis

4.2.1 2012-2017 Regional Market Performance and Market Share

4.2.2 United States Market

4.2.3 Europe Market

4.2.4 China Market

4.2.5 Japan Market

4.2.6 India Market

4.2.7 Rest Regions Market

Chapter 5 Production, Sales and Consumption Market Comparison Analysis

5.1 Global Production, Sales and Consumption Market Comparison Analysis

5.2 Regional Production, Sales Volume and Consumption Volume Market Comparison Analysis

5.2.1 United States

5.2.2 Europe

5.2.3 China

5.2.4 Japan

5.2.5 India

5.2.6 Rest Regions

Chapter 6 Major Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Analysis

6.1 Global Major Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Analysis

6.1.1 2012-2017 Global Major Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison

6.2 Regional Major Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Analysis

6.2.1 United States

6.2.2 Europe

6.2.3 China

6.2.4 Japan

6.2.5 India

6.2.6 Rest Regions

Chapter 7 Major Type Analysis

7.1 2012-2017 Major Type Market Share

Chapter 8 Major Application Analysis

8.1 2012-2017 Major Application Market Share

Chapter 9 Bone Marrow Transplant Industry Chain Analysis

9.1 Up Stream Industries Analysis

9.1.1 Raw Material and Suppliers

9.1.2 Equipment and Suppliers

9.2 Manufacturing Analysis

9.2.1 Manufacturing Process

9.2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure

9.2.3 Manufacturing Plants Distribution Analysis

9.3 Industry Chain Structure Analysis

Browse Complete TOC Here: https://www.industryresearch.co/TOC/13652362#TOC

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Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated how the gut microbiome the community of microorganisms living in the gut can influence the immune system in humans. Their work could lead to new treatments for immune-related conditions.

The researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, tracked the recovery of patients gut microbiota and immune system after bone marrow transplants (BMTs) following treatment for blood cancers.

Healthcare professionals use chemotherapy and radiation therapy to destroy cancerous blood cells in conditions such as leukemia and lymphoma. After completion of the treatment, which also kills healthy immune cells, specialists inject patients with stem cells from a donors blood or bone marrow.

These donated cells slowly restore patients ability to make their own blood cells.

However, patients have to take antibiotics in the first few weeks after the transplant because they are still vulnerable to infections. These upset the balance of their gut microbiota, killing friendly bacteria and allowing dangerous strains to thrive.

Once patients immune systems are strong enough, they can stop taking the antibiotics, which allows their gut microbiota to recover.

The researchers at Sloan Kettering used this unique opportunity to study how the microbiota affects the immune system.

The scientific community had already accepted the idea that the gut microbiota was important for the health of the human immune system, but the data they used to make that assumption came from animal studies, explains systems biologist Joao Xavier, who is co-senior author of the paper with his former postdoc Jonas Schluter.

The parallel recoveries of the immune system and the microbiota, both of which are damaged and then restored, gives us a unique opportunity to analyze the associations between these two systems, says Dr. Schluter, who is now an assistant professor at NYU Langone Health in New York, NY.

Using blood and fecal samples from more than 2,000 patients treated at the cancer center between 20032019, the researchers were able to track daily changes in their gut microbiota and the number of immune cells in their blood.

Our study shows that we can learn a lot from stool biological samples that literally would be flushed down the toilet, says Dr. Xavier. The result of collecting them is that we have a unique dataset with thousands of data points that we can use to ask questions about the dynamics of this relationship.

The researchers used a machine-learning algorithm to identify patterns in the data, which included information about patients medications and the side effects they experienced.

One of the findings was that the presence of three types of gut bacteria called Faecalibacterium, Ruminococcus 2, and Akkermansia was associated with increased blood concentrations of immune cells called neutrophils.

By contrast, two types called Rothia and Clostridium sensu stricto 1, were associated with reduced numbers of these immune cells.

Computer simulations by the researchers predicted that enriching microbiota with the three friendly genera would speed up the recovery of patients immune systems.

This research could eventually suggest ways to make BMTs safer by more closely regulating the microbiota, says co-author Marcel van den Brink.

The study appears in Nature.

Concluding their paper, the authors write:

Our demonstration that the microbiota influences systemic immunity in humans opens the door toward an exploration of potential microbiota-targeted interventions to improve immunotherapy and treatments for immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases.

A previous study found that having a greater diversity of bacterial species in the gut is associated with a better chance of survival after a stem cell transplant. This research also found that a low diversity of bacteria increased the likelihood of potentially fatal graft-versus-host disease, when the donor immune cells attack the recipients tissues.

In 2018, the Sloan Kettering researchers published results from a clinical trial in which they used fecal transplants to restore patients microbiota after treatment for blood cancer.

They used the patients own fecal matter, which had been collected and frozen before the bone marrow transplant and antibiotic treatment disrupted their gut microbiota.

Original post:
Gut bacteria can help rebuild the immune system - Medical News Today

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 1, 2020) - Hemostemix Inc. (TSXV: HEM) (OTCBB: HMTXF), a clinical stage biotechnology company with a patented stem cell technology platform, has successfully, following lengthy litigation, obtained its entire clinical trial database from Medrio Inc., which was hosting the database for Aspire Heath Science LLC. For more details on the litigation, please refer to today's news release.

For more information, please view the InvestmentPitch Media "video" which provides additional information about this news and the company. If this link is not enabled, please visit http://www.InvestmentPitch.com and enter "Hemostemix" in the search box.

Cannot view this video? Visit:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IszVA_cf90

The company's principal business is to develop, manufacture and commercialize blood-derived stem cell therapies to treat various diseases not adequately addressed by current therapeutics. The company's process for harvesting stem cells is less invasive, as the stem cells are taken from a patient's blood, which is a simplified process as compared to taking stem cells from fatty tissue or bone marrow.

Critical limb ischemia or CLI, a severe blockage in the arteries of the lower extremities, which markedly reduces blood-flow, is deadliest form of peripheral arterial disease or PAD, with limited treatment options and no current approved drug treatments. The company's lead product, ACP-01 is the subject of a Phase II clinical trial of its safety and efficacy in patients with advanced CLI, who have exhausted all other options to save their limb from amputation.

Hemostemix owns 91 patents related to its products and manufacturing processes and has entered into a contract with a new clinical research organization which is completing the midpoint statistical analyses of the efficacy of ACP-01. A winner of the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award, Hemostemix developed and is commercializing its lead product ACP-01.

Story continues

Hemostemix announced the abstract and interim results presented to the 41st annual Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery meeting, which noted healing of ulcers and resolution of ischemic rest pain occurred in 83 per cent of patients studied by lead investigators at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto with outcomes maintained for up to 4.5 years.

Thomas Smeenk, CEO, stated: "As every biotech investor knows, it is all about the data! Blinded, we will know in short order if our HS 12-01 midpoint results equal the interim clinical trial results that 83 per cent of patients followed for up to 4.5 years experienced. Fortunately, we have a lot of data of the efficacy of ACP. For example, we have the clinical trial results of the 41 patients treated for cardiomyopathy. And, we have the results of the 106 ischemic heart disease patients on maximal medical therapy who had no option for revascularization, who experienced significant improvement."

Hemostemix is addressing a huge potential market. According to The Sage Group LLC, in the United States alone, approximately 20 million people are affected by PAD, and it is estimated that approximately 7 to 8 million people in the United States and Europe suffer from CLI. The Sage Group estimates that in the United States, medical costs attributable to CLI amount to US$25 billion annually.

The company has also announced a non-brokered private placement. The company is looking to raise gross proceeds of up to $2.5 million from the placement of up to 250 million units priced at $0.01 per unit. The units consist of 1 share and 1 warrant, with each warrant exercisable at $0.05 for 12 months, subject to an acceleration clause. The shares are currently trading at $0.01. However, the company has obtained shareholder approval for a 20 for one share consolidation.

In addition to accredited investors, this placement is available under certain security exemptions to existing shareholders, friends and family, and those investors having received advice under the investment dealer exemption.

For more information, please visit the company's website at http://www.hemostemix.com, contact Thomas Smeenk, President, CEO and Co-Founder at 905-580-4170 or by email at TSmeenk@hemostemix.com.

About InvestmentPitch Media

InvestmentPitch Media leverages the power of video, which together with its extensive distribution, positions a company's story ahead of the 1,000's of companies seeking awareness and funding from the financial community. The company specializes in producing short videos based on significant news releases, research reports and other content of interest to investors.

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InvestmentPitch MediaBarry Morgan, CFObmorgan@investmentpitch.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/69255

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InvestmentPitch Media Video Discusses Hemostemix Successfully Obtaining all Clinical Trial Data and Announcement of $2.5 Million Unit Offering - Video...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Multiple Myeloma Drugs Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global multiple myeloma drugs market grew at a CAGR of around 9% during 2014-2019. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to witness moderate growth during the next five years.

Multiple myeloma, or Kahler's disease, refers to a form of blood cancer that primarily affects the plasma cells. Some of the most common types of multiple myeloma drugs include chemotherapeutic agents, corticosteroids and immunomodulatory agents. These pharmaceutical drugs aid in promoting bone healing, prevent hypercalcemia, bone fracture, spinal cord compression and anemia, while minimizing the need for chemotherapy. The chemotherapeutic agents include various anthracycline antibiotics and alkylating agents, such as melphalan, doxorubicin, vincristine and liposomal doxorubicin. The targeted therapy drugs include proteasome inhibitor, such as bortezomib, and various other compounds, including dexamethasone, prednisone and thalidomide.

Significant developments in the healthcare sector, along with the increasing prevalence of hematological cancer, is one of the key factors driving the growth of the market. Multiple myeloma is usually caused by specific genetic abnormalities, and the treatment of this disease involves drugs that modulate the immune system and aid in enhancing the efficiency of chemotherapies, radiation therapies, stem cell transplants and platelet transfusion.

Furthermore, rising consumer awareness regarding the benefits of biologic therapy drugs, which utilize the body's immune system to identify and attack the myeloma cells, is also providing a boost to the market growth. Additionally, various technological advancements, such as the development of microRNA therapeutics and nanomedicines for the treatment of multiple myeloma, is acting as another growth-inducing factor. These medicines are used to facilitate the delivery of macromolecular agents into the bone marrow and catalyze antitumor responses. Other factors, including the rising healthcare expenditures and extensive research and development (R&D) activities in the field of medical sciences, are projected to drive the market further.

Companies Mentioned

Key Questions Answered in This Report:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Preface

2 Scope and Methodology

2.1 Objectives of the Study

2.2 Stakeholders

2.3 Data Sources

2.3.1 Primary Sources

2.3.2 Secondary Sources

2.4 Market Estimation

2.4.1 Bottom-Up Approach

2.4.2 Top-Down Approach

2.5 Forecasting Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends

5 Global Multiple Myeloma Drugs Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast

6 Market Breakup by Therapy

6.1 Targeted Therapy

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Biologic Therapy

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Chemotherapy

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Others

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Market Forecast

7 Market Breakup by Drug Type

7.1 Immunomodulatory Drugs

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Proteasome Inhibitors

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Monoclonal Antibody Drugs

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast

7.5 Steroids

7.5.1 Market Trends

7.5.2 Market Forecast

7.6 Others

7.6.1 Market Trends

7.6.2 Market Forecast

8 Market Breakup by End-User

8.1 Men

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Women

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

9 Market Breakup by Distribution Channel

9.1 Hospital Pharmacies

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Market Forecast

9.2 Retail Pharmacies

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Market Forecast

9.3 Online Pharmacies

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Market Forecast

9.4 Others

9.4.1 Market Trends

9.4.2 Market Forecast

10 Market Breakup by Region

10.1 North America

10.2 Asia Pacific

10.3 Europe

10.4 Latin America

10.5 Middle East and Africa

11 SWOT Analysis

12 Value Chain Analysis

13 Porters Five Forces Analysis

14 Price Indicators

15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8yriem

Excerpt from:
Outlook on the Multiple Myeloma Drugs Global Market to 2025 - by Therapy, Drug Type, End-user, Distribution Channel and Region -...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Imago BioSciences, Inc., (Imago) a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing innovative treatments for myeloid diseases, today announced the expansion of its global Phase 2b clinical study evaluating bomedemstat (IMG-7289) for the treatment of advanced myelofibrosis (MF) into Hong Kong, where the first patient has now been enrolled and dosed at the Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital and the University of Hong Kong. Myelofibrosis is a rare bone marrow cancer that interferes with the production of blood cells.

In addition to Hong Kong, the Phase 2b study continues to actively enroll patients in the U.S., U.K., and E.U. The study is in the final stages of completing enrollment and continues to dose patients to evaluate safety, tolerability and efficacy.

Patients with myelofibrosis around the world are still in need of new treatment options, said Hugh Young Rienhoff, Jr. M.D., Chief Executive Officer, Imago BioSciences. We are progressing well with enrollment and are pleased to continue expanding our global Phase 2 study into new geographies like Hong Kong. We are encouraged by the signs of clinical activity and safety of bomedemstat as a treatment alternative for patients who do not benefit from the current standards of care.

Bomedemstat is an inhibitor of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), an epigenetic regulator critical for self-renewal of malignant myeloid cells and the differentiation of myeloid progenitors. Data presented at the 25th European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Congress in June demonstrated that the first-in-class LSD1 inhibitor was well tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities or safety signals. Furthermore, recent data demonstrates the potential of bomedemstat as a monotherapy in intermediate-2 and high-risk patients with myelofibrosis who have become intolerant of, resistant to or are ineligible for a Janus Kinase (JAK) inhibitor.

Bomedemstat was recently granted PRIME (PRIority MEdicines) designation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of MF. The EMA reviewed bomedemstat non-clinical and clinical data from the ongoing Phase 2 study. The PRIME initiative was launched by the EMA in 2016 to provide proactive and enhanced support to the developers of promising medicines with the view of accelerating their evaluation to reach patients faster.

About Bomedemstat (IMG-7289)

Bomedemstat is an orally available small molecule discovered and developed by Imago BioSciences that inhibits lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1 or KDM1A), an enzyme shown to be vital in cancer stem/progenitor cells, particularly neoplastic bone marrow cells. In non-clinical studies, bomedemstat demonstrated robust in vivo anti-tumor efficacy across a range of myeloid malignancies as a single agent and in combination with other therapeutic agents. Bomedemstat is an investigational agent currently being evaluated in ongoing clinical trials (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03136185, NCT04262141, NCT04254978 and NCT04081220).

Bomedemstat has U.S. FDA Orphan Drug and Fast Track Designation for the treatment of myelofibrosis and essential thrombocythemia, Orphan Drug Designation for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and PRIME designation by the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of MF.

Bomedemstat is being evaluated in two open-label Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of advanced myelofibrosis (MF) and essential thrombocythemia (ET), bone marrow cancers that interfere with the production of blood cells. MF patients who are resistant to a Janus Kinase (JAK) inhibitor are eligible for the study of bomedemstat. ET patients who have failed one standard of care treatment are eligible for the bomedemstat ET study.

About Imago BioSciences

Imago BioSciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of hematologic disorders targeting epigenetic enzymes. Imago has developed a series of compounds that inhibit LSD1, an epigenetic enzyme critical for cancer stem cell function and blood cell differentiation. Imago is advancing the clinical development of its first LSD1 inhibitor, bomedemstat, for the treatment of myeloid neoplasms. Imago BioSciences is backed by leading private, corporate, and public investors including Farallon Capital Management, LLC., funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., funds and accounts managed by Blackrock Advisors, LLC., Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Irving Investors, Kingdon Capital Management, a fund managed by Blackstone Life Sciences, Frazier Healthcare Partners, Omega Funds, Amgen Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund, HighLight Capital, Pharmaron, Greenspring Associates and Xeraya Capital. The company is based in South San Francisco, California. To learn more, visit http://www.imagobio.com, http://www.myelofibrosisclinicalstudy.com, http://www.etclinicalstudy.com and follow us on Twitter @ImagoBioRx, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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Imago BioSciences Expands Phase 2 Clinical Trial of Bomedemstat (IMG-7289) for the Treatment of Myelofibrosis into Hong Kong - Business Wire

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The mRNA technology used to create the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for COVID is being applied to ... [+] many other medical treatments in addition to vaccines.

While the vaccines for Covid-19 seem to have been created in record time, the technology making them possible has been decades in development. The two vaccine candidates produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are unlike any other vaccine thats come before. Should they achieve commercial success, it could usher in a new era of medical science not just for vaccines, but for cancer treatments, blood disorders, and gene therapy.

The two new vaccines are the first ever to use mRNA, which stands for messenger RNA, to generate immunity. Historically, vaccines have used dead or weakened viruses to imitate an infection, spurring the body to make antibodies against that virus without danger of getting sick. Measles, polio, and some seasonal flu shots are examples of vaccines made with whole virus particles.

Other vaccines use only certain fragments of the virus, called antigens, that provoke an immune response. To make this type of vaccine, the genetic code for the desired viral antigen molecule is put into yeast or bacteria cells. These microbes can be grown rapidly and inexpensively, and they can churn out massive quantities of antigen. Then the molecule must be purified to clinical standards so that its safe to inject into healthy people. Prevnar and Gardasil are examples of this type of vaccine.

These methods work well, but they require enormous research and development efforts. A laboratory could spend years optimizing the methods for producing one virus protein, but those methods wouldnt automatically translate to mass-producing a different protein.

For every new protein, you start over. Its a brand-new procedure every step of the way, explains immunologist Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Weissman is one of the pioneering scientists behind the mRNA vaccine.

The way I see it, the mRNA platform is much better, its much quicker, and its cheaper, says Weissman. Thats the trilogy of what you need to improve vaccines. With mRNA, the steps are the same, no matter what virus the vaccine is targeting. This makes it easily customizable. Once an mRNA manufacturing facility is up and running, it can easily be deployed to make vaccines against any number of viral antigens.

A strand of mRNA carries the instructions for making one protein. Your cells normally make their own mRNA strands and use them as blueprints to manufacture all the proteins your body needs to function.

The vaccine slips a new strand of mRNA into the cell, like an extra page in the blueprint. This mRNA contains the instructions for making the coronavirus spike protein, and the cell reads it the same way it reads its own mRNAs, using it to build the viral protein. The immune system recognizes that protein as foreign, and starts making antibodies against it. Then, if youre exposed to the actual virus, those antibodies will be available to stop the infection. Astonishingly, in animal tests, mRNA vaccines appear to induce immunity that lasts much longer than live virus vaccines.

The beauty of mRNA is that its temporary. Your cells wont keep cranking out spike protein forever. Like an Instagram story, the mRNA fades away after a certain amount of time, because you dont need to keep making coronavirus protein forever in order to maintain the protective immunity.

Another big advantage of mRNA is that its rapidly customizable. Once scientists know the genetic sequence of a viral protein, they can make the mRNA in the lab and package it into a vaccine in a matter of weeks.

Originally envisioned as a way to deliver gene therapy, mRNA had to overcome some serious challenges before arriving at todays big moment. In 2005, Weissman and his colleague, Katalin Karik, solved one of the most difficult problems facing mRNA. In its natural form, the molecule sparks an excessive immune reaction, igniting inflammation that damages the body. To avoid this, they changed the structure of the mRNA just enough to fool the immune sentries.

Similar to DNA, RNA is made up of a series of chemical letters, a kind of code that the cell translates to make a protein. Modifying the chemical structure of one of those letters allowed the information to remain intact, and eliminated the signal that triggered the bodys immune alarms.

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Weissmans lab was working on vaccines for influenza, herpes, and HIV. Those will all be going into phase I clinical trials within the next year, he says. But vaccines are only the beginning of what mRNA can do.

Often in the case of genetic diseases, the problem is that a broken gene fails to produce a protein that the body needs for healthy function. The idea of gene therapy is simple: send in a healthy copy of the broken gene, which the cells can use to make the protein. Most times, researchers use viruses to deliver the gene, but viruses can cause problems of their own. Delivering mRNA to the cell without a virus circumvents some of these issues.

To ferry the mRNA into cells, it is encapsulated in a fatty coating called a lipid nanoparticle (LNP). Weissmans lab has been experimenting with ways to modify the LNP so that it can home in on certain cell types.

In sickle cell disease (SCD), a broken hemoglobin gene prevents blood cells from carrying oxygen ... [+] efficiently, and causes them to take on a rigid, sickle-shaped form.

My lab has figured out how to specifically deliver the LNP to bone marrow stem cells, Weissman says. This could lead to an inexpensive and practical cure for sickle cell anemia. An mRNA molecule can be programmed to encode the beta-hemoglobin gene, which is defective in sickle cell disease. That mRNA would be sent directly to the bone marrow cells using the specially targeted LNPs, enabling the bone marrow to produce healthy red blood cells that contain functioning beta-hemoglobin.

All that would need to be done is to give people a single intravenous injection of the mRNA LNP, and youll cure their sickle cell anemia, Weissman says. By contrast, the current FDA-approved gene-editing therapy for sickle cell requires the patients bone marrow be removed, treated, and then returned to the bodyan expensive and invasive procedure. The mRNA treatment could be simple enough to deliver in lower-income countries, where sickle cell disease impacts the health of millions of people.

An up-and-coming strategy for fighting cancer is a so-called cancer vaccine, which uses immune cells called dendritic cells (DCs). DCs perform surveillance for the immune system. When they detect something that shouldnt be there, whether its a virus, a bacteria, or even a cancer cell, the DCs chew it up, break it into its component molecules, and then show those foreign molecules to the immune cells that make antibodies.

Dendritic cells chew up viruses or other foreign bodies, and present the pieces to other immune ... [+] cells. T cells and B cells both play a role in mounting a long-lasting immunity against the pathogen.

When cancer grows slowly, though, it can slip past the DC surveillance network. To give the immune system a boost, a patients DCs are taken out and artificially loaded with tumor-specific proteins, or antigens. Back inside the body, the cells stimulate the generation of antibodies against the tumor.

Using mRNA to deliver the tumor antigen information to the DCs could provide a way to make this process easier, cheaper, and safer. BioNTech is currently conducting clinical trials on cancer vaccines for triple-negative breast cancer, metastatic melanoma, and HPV-positive head and neck cancers. Called FixVac, the vaccines include multiple tumor antigens that are frequently found across different patients. Early data published in September 2020 showed promise, suggesting that the mRNA therapy generates a lasting immune response, comparable to more expensive methods.

Karik, who is now a senior vice president at BioNTech, and Weissman both speak with an air of inevitability, as if they have only been waiting patiently for the world to catch up with their discovery. The two scientists told their stories recently at the 2nd annual mRNA Day celebration in San Diego, hosted by Trilink BioTechnologies in honor of their recently opened facility there. After hearing the tumultuous history of the technology and seeing promising new data, one attendee asked, what would you say was the turning point for mRNA therapeutics?

Karik responded simply, When people read our [2005] paper. We were waiting for somebody to respond, we did a lot of experiments, but we waited and waited. It was just too early for most people.

Weissman agreed. I think we were early, he said. It finally caught on, and it will hopefully change the world.

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The New Coronavirus Vaccine Is Changing The Future Of Medicine - Forbes

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If youre a woman in the menopause transition, hot flashes and night sweats arent the only things that should grab your attention. It turns out that the stage of fluctuating hormones leading to your final period is a risky time for your heart health.

Thats the consensus of nearly a dozen experts who reviewed the research on the topic for the American Heart Association. They published theirscientific statement on November 30 in the journal Circulation.

RELATED: 10 Ways to Beat Menopausal Belly Fat

This phase of a womans life is a time of accelerated cardiovascular risk at multiple dimensions, including changes in lipids, body fat, metabolic syndrome, and vascular health, saysSamar R. El Khoudary, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh and the chair of this AHA statement writing committee.

These changes significantly raise the potential for heart disease later in life, and this is why women and their doctors must see themenopause transitionas a crucial time for intervention, rather than wait until women are older and experiencing disease, Dr. El Khoudary says.

The AHA committee undertook their thorough review because many more studies on women going through the menopause transition are available now than previously, especially since the last AHA guidelines on treating women were written, in 2011.

Some of the best studies have followed women during their midlife years. This includes the Study of Womens Health Across the Nation (SWAN), the Melbourne Womens Midlife Health Project, and the Penn Ovarian Aging Study (POAS).

RELATED: 5 Things Weve Learned From the Most Important Menopause Study

Other, especially older, studies have tended to group women into before menopause and after, leaping over the important phase that occurs as they shift from one time of life to the other, El Khoudary says.

Still, even more research is needed, she says, especially studies testing specific cardiovascular interventions, such as medications, during this stage.

Understanding these processes is so important, because heart disease is the leading cause of death for women. If you didnt know that, youre not alone. Only 56 percent of women are aware of this fact, El Khoudary observes.

Cardiologists dont sufficiently focus on this, either. While most know that a womans risk of heart disease increases once the protective effects of estrogen cease after menopause, many dont intervene soon enough to make a difference, she says.

More cardiologists are becoming aware of this important window. But we are behind because of this notion that women dont get cardiovascular disease until later in life, and that they have different symptoms than men, says Ruwanthi Titano, MD, an assistant professor of cardiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who was not involved with the review.

Doctors need to view the menopause transition as a risk factor akin to high cholesterol and hypertension, Dr. Titano says.

RELATED: Coping With Hot Flashes and Other Menopausal Symptoms: What 9 Celebrities Said

A woman is considered post-menopausal only after she has gone a full year without a single period. During the transition period, known as perimenopause, a woman can go months without a menstrual bleed, but then menstruate, resetting the clock.

During this time, hormones fluctuate greatly. One of the main hormones is estrogen. It is this hormone that is thought to provide the key heart protection women experience earlier in life.

Once a woman becomes post-menopausal, her estrogen level remains low.

RELATED: What Are Irregular Periods?

And that's by no means the only change that happens in the body during the menopause transition. They cumulatively raise the potential for heart troubles down the road, El Khoudary says. Its not like a button you press that quickly increases your mortality. But, accumulated together, the changes women experience increase her risks for cardiovascular disease.

During this period, blood cholesterol levels start to rise. The carotid artery begins to thicken (a subclinical measure of atherosclerosis, El Khourdary says). Excess weight moves from being stored around the thighs and buttocks to around the abdominal organs and the heart more dangerous locations. And metabolic syndrome symptoms increase, the committee found.

All these factors can set the stage for later heart attacks or strokes.

RELATED:What Experts Want BIPOC Women Know About Menopause

Even once-healthy HDL cholesterol levels seem to take a destructive turn.

HDL, or good cholesterol, is considered to be cardioprotective. But once a woman transitions to menopause, it actually seems to become bad for you, El Khoudary says, citing her own soon-to-be published research.

This has led to the hypothesis that HDL experiences some dysfunctionality as women transition through menopause, causing it to stop functioning the way it used to, she says.

Doctors erroneously think of menopause as a point of demarcation, El Khoudary says. One day youre menstruating, then youre not. But menopause is actually a lengthy and varied process, with hormonal fluctuations sometimes lasting years.

Its connection to heart disease is especially complex. Age of menopause, the stage of menopause youre in, and even your race may play a role, the paper states. For instance, women who experience menopause at an earlier age, typically before 45, have a higher risk for later heart disease.

Socioeconomic indicators, prior cardiovascular health, and other factors are associated with a younger transition. Black, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian women tend to experience the menopause transition at a younger age.

Women whose ovaries are surgically removed when theyre younger are also more likely to face increased cardiovascular problems, the paper states.

So, too, are women who suffer severe vasomotor symptoms, including hot flashes and night sweats.

The analysis reveals the importance of monitoring womens health during midlife and using the menopausal transition as a critical window for intervention.

Women and their doctors need to understand how the body changes during this time, and the ways that can boost your heart disease risk, El Khoudary says.

Your doctor might prescribe medications to keep blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar in check, critical parts of the AHAs Lifes Simple 7 heart campaign.

My message for perimenopausal women is to engage in your healthcare. Get your yearly checkup with your physician or see your cardiologist if you have one. Your doctor should be looking more closely at your lipid panel, because maybe numbers that were acceptable before arent good enough anymore, Titano says.

RELATED:Fitness After 40 and Beyond: What to Know About Midlife Exercise Needs

Sufficient physical exercise is key. El Khoudary was stunned to learn that just 7.2 percent of women past menopause are meeting physical activity guidelines.

RELATED:7 Fun Ways to Move More in Midlife

Similarly, adopting a healthy eating plan, one that becomes part of your life rather than a short-term fad, can protect your heart. But post-menopausal women dont seem to be doing this either, with only 20 percent saying they consistently maintain a healthy diet.

Other important actions to protect your heart include getting sufficient sleep, adopting stress-reduction techniques, and quitting smoking if you havent already.

RELATED: Having Multiple Severe Menopause Symptoms Is Linked to Increased Risk for Heart Disease

While it might seem that properly dosed and timed menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) could lower womens heart disease risk, this has not been proved in research.

The last major study of hormone therapy, the Womens Health Initiative, was stopped in 2002 when participants were found to have a small increase in heart disease, blood clots, cancer, and stroke. But these women were older, generally many years past their menopause transition.

We dont know what would happen in terms of heart disease if you gave hormone therapy to women during the transition, El Khourdary says. We dont have the clinical trials for women in their forties or fifties.

Still, some smaller studies, many of them observational ones, indicate that newer formulations of hormone therapy, especially those taken via skin patches or sprays rather than pills, may offer some heart protection, she says.

RELATED: Timing and Type of Hormone Therapy Impacts Its Effectiveness in Preventing Heart Disease

The Circulation paper notes the promise, but also indicates that the AHA may not be ready to recommend that women take hormone therapy for their heart.

The literature supporting a critical role for the time of initiation of MHT use relative to menopause, with initiation at <60 years of age or within 10 years of menopause appearing to be associated with reduced CVD risk, strongly calls for further research assessing MHT use, including potential contrasts by form, route, and duration of administration, on cardiometabolic effects in women traversing menopause, the paper states.

RELATED: Hormone Therapy May Prevent UTIs in Post-Menopausal Women

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The Menopause Transition Poses Heart Disease Risk - Everyday Health

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(UroToday.com) At the second prostate cancer session at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO), Dr. Maha Hussain presented the results of the PROfound study, Study of Olaparib (Lynparza) Versus Enzalutamide or Abiraterone Acetate in Men With Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (PROfound Study), which demonstrated the superiority of olaparib, a poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitor, for treatment of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

After a brief discussion of the ToPARP trial and some of the rationale which lead to the genesis of the PROfound study, Dr. Hussain launched into a discussion of the trial itself. In this trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May 20201 with an update in the same journal in September2, patients with the following characteristics were enrolled:

There were no restrictions based on ECOG status, volume or location of metastases, or prior taxane therapy.

Patients with mutations in BRCA1, BRCA2, ATM were called and cohort A and were the primary population for the analysis.

These patients were randomized to olaparib 300mg twice-daily vs the physician's choice of abiraterone or enzalutamide. The primary endpoint was imaging-based progression-free survival in cohort A based on blinded central review.

Overall the results were resoundingly positive, with olaparib showing superiority in progression-free survival (7.4 mo vs 3.6 mo, HR 0.34 0.25-0.47, P<0.001), the median time to pain progression (HR 0.44 0.22-0.91, P <0.02), andoverall survival (19.1 months vs 14.7 mo, HR 0.69 9.50-0.97 P =0.02)in cohort A. This overall survival difference is particularly impressive given an 81% cross over from the control to the olaparib arm after progression in these patients.

Results in the full population were similar, as were results from numerous prespecified subgroup analyses, including patients with and without prior taxane use, bone only and visceral metastases, and baseline ECOG score of 0 and 1.

This data lead to the United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to approve olaparib for patients with mCRCP with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic homologous recombination repair mutations who have progressed on enzalutamide or abiraterone. This recommendation was similarly adopted in theNational Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines.

(Similar approval was given to rucaparib based on the TRITON2 study, though this was limited to tumors with deleterious BRCA mutations and men previously treated with taxane chemotherapy.)

As Dr. Daniel Spratt argued in his counterpoint, however, this approval may be overly broad.

When analyzing patients by which genes were altered, the 95% CI of patients with BRCA2 mutations was the only one not to cross 1 (HR 0.21 0.12-0.32) for progression-free survival despite there being similar numbers of patients with ATM and CDK12 mutations. The signal of benefit was generally much stronger in BRCA mutations for both OS and PFS, with very little signal of benefit in the remaining patients, so it may be wise to limit clinical use to patients with these mutations.

Dr. Spratt also pointed out that there now exists a large body of evidence suggesting there is very little benefit in using abiraterone after progression on enzalutamide (or similar) and vice versa. Thus, for the 44.7% (173/387) patients who received docetaxel only, and certainly for the 34% who had received no prior chemotherapy (133/387), olaparib cannot be said to have been compared to the current standard of care in this trial.

Thus even for patients with BRCA mutations, which seem to confer the most favorable responses to olaparib, it remains very much unclear whether olaparib should be chosen before exhausting the numerous alternative available therapies.

Presented by: Maha H.A. Hussain, MD, FACP, FASCO, Genevieve Teuton Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Daniel Spratt, MD, Professor, Laurie Snow Research Professor of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan

Written by: Marshall Strother, MD, Society for Urologic Oncology Fellow, Division of Urologic Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia PA, @mcstroth duringthe 2020 Society of Urologic Oncology Annual Meeting December 2-5, 2020 Washington, DC

References:

1. de Bono J, Mateo J, Fizazi K, Saad F, Shore N, Sandhu S, Chi KN, Sartor O, Agarwal N, Olmos D, Thiery-Vuillemin A, Twardowski P, Mehra N, Goessl C, Kang J, Burgents J, Wu W, Kohlmann A, Adelman CA, Hussain M. Olaparib for Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2020 May 28;382(22):2091-2102. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1911440. Epub 2020 Apr 28. PMID: 32343890.

2. Hussain M, Mateo J, Fizazi K, et al. Survival with olaparib in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. N Engl J Med. Published online September 20, 2020:NEJMoa2022485.

Related ContentPatients with Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC) Can Be Preselected to Maximize Benefit of Olaparib - Maha Hussain

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SUO 2020: New Second Line Therapy for mCRPC: PARPi: Results from the PROfound Study - UroToday

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Since 1901, Nobel Prizes have honored the worlds best and brightest and showcased the work of brilliant and creative minds, thanks to Swedish businessman Alfred Nobel, who made his fortune with the invention of dynamite.

The Prize in Physiology or Medicine often honors those whose discoveries led to medical breakthroughs, new drug treatments, or a better understanding of the human body that benefit us all.

The Prize in Literature celebrates those skilled in telling stories, creating poetry, and translating the human experience into words. The Prizes in Chemistry and Physics remind most of us how little we understand of genetics, atomic structures, or the universe around us, celebrating the scientists who further knowledge. A later addition to the award roster, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is not an original Prize, but was established by the Central Bank of Sweden in 1968 as a memorial to Alfred Nobel. It applauds those who can unravel the mysteries of markets, trade, and money.

The Peace Prize celebrates, in Nobels words, the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses, sometimes risking their lives to do so.

So precious are the awards that the medals of German physicists Max von Laue and James Franck, stored away for safekeeping in Copenhagen during World War II, were dissolved in acid to keep them away from approaching Nazi troops. After the war, the gold was reconstituted from the acid and recast into new medals.

But Nobel history has not been entirely noble. In 1939, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, known for his policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany, was nominated for the Peace Prize. In an act of irony and protest, members of the Swedish Parliament nominated Adolf Hitler. That nomination was withdrawn. Some recipients have ordered oppressive crackdowns on their own people or ignored genocides, either before or after receiving the Prize. The 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to Germanys Fritz Haber, who invented a method of producing ammonia on a large scale, which was helpful in making fertilizer. But the same chemist helped develop the chlorine gas that was used as a chemical weapon in World War I.

Stacker looked at facts and events related to the Nobel Prizes each year from 1931 to 2020, drawing from the Nobel Committees recollections and announcements, news stories, and historical accounts.

Take a look, and see what was happening with the Nobel Prizes the year you were born.

You may also like: 100 years of military history

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Nobel Prize history from the year you were born - Albany Democrat Herald

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Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a medical condition that affects an estimated 8 to 13 percent of women who are of reproductive age.

PCOS can cause:

While these dont happen to every woman with PCOS, there are changes from a lifestyle perspective that can help reduce the likelihood these effects will occur.

This article will focus on some of the changes you can implement today, such as diet and exercise routines. As always, if you have specific questions, talk to your doctor who helps you manage your PCOS.

Women with PCOS experience higher rates of insulin resistance compared to women who dont have the condition. Insulin resistance affects your bodys ability to use blood sugar for energy.

Doctors have connected a lack of physical activity and excess body weight as potential contributing factors to insulin resistance, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Not all women with PCOS have overweight. The good news is physical exercise is something you can do for your health when you have PCOS, regardless of your weight.

A meta-analysis of 16 studies related to PCOS and exercise found that vigorous intensity aerobic exercise was the most likely to reduce body mass index (BMI) and insulin resistance in women with PCOS, according to an article in the journal Frontiers in Physiology.

The researchers compared moderate exercise to vigorous exercise. They also found that vigorous exercise and healthy diet interventions resulted in the greatest decreases in BMI.

A research review of lifestyle interventions in PCOS published in the journal Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology found that exercise helped to reduce weight, abdominal fat, and fasting insulin levels.

The review also found exercise could help women of all weight levels with PCOS either lose or maintain their weight to help them look and feel healthier.

A literature review of studies published in the journal Sports Medicine regarding types of exercises, such as strength training and aerobic activity, did not find one specific exercise type was the most beneficial to women with PCOS.

Some of the studies reviewed aerobic exercise and resistance training, riding a stationary bicycle versus riding a bicycle outside, and treadmill walking or jogging at a moderate intensity versus vigorous intensity. The authors did find there are many exercise types that could benefit women with PCOS.

The message from these and other studies is that exercise can usually help you when you have PCOS, and the best exercise is what you will do regularly. Bonus points if the exercise can be something you enjoy doing.

Here are some exercise types to consider:

These are just some examples of exercises you can do with minimal equipment and space.

Researchers have completed several studies regarding the best diet types for those with PCOS to follow. The Androgen Excess and PCOS Society used this research to make recommendations for women, which include:

If you arent sure where to start with incorporating these changes to your diet, talk to your doctor. Your doctor also may recommend seeing a dietitian to create an eating plan specific to women with PCOS.

Exercise to improve your PCOS doesnt have to take hours a week. Studies have found exercise sessions ranging from 30 minutes a day, three times a week, to three total hours per week improved metabolic and reproductive symptoms associated with PCOS.

The Androgen Excess and PCOS Society recommends getting at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day and increasing your activity effort when you can. Some of the ways you can incorporate exercise in your life include the following:

If boredom is a factor in your commitment to an exercise routine, utilize a combination of these exercise types, such as completing a different exercise session type three times a week.

Try to incorporate the following habits for healthy eating with each meal and snack:

Using these guidelines, you can often stay within recommended daily calorie requirements given your overall height, health level, and weight.

When you have PCOS, its always a good idea to talk to your doctor about the lifestyle changes you can make to improve your health. When it comes to exercise for your PCOS, its especially important you talk to your doctor if you have other medical conditions that could affect your ability to exercise. Examples include arthritis or heart-related conditions.

If you have been sedentary for some time or dont have a solid foundation in exercise safety or proper form, it may be a good idea to consult a personal trainer. Your personal trainer should have a fitness certification from an accredited organization. Examples include:

Your trainer should be experienced and emphasize safety.

Exercise can be an important part of your PCOS management. Not only does it improve your physical health, exercise can help you manage your stress levels.

If you arent sure where to start, seeing your doctor and finding a personal trainer can help set you on a safe pathway. Exercising at least three times a week and sticking with it can help you improve symptoms from PCOS.

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Exercise For PCOS: Sample Plan, Types of Exercise, and More - Healthline

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SGF proudly welcomes Dr. Jennifer Hsu to its Woodbridge practice.

FAIRFAX, Va. (PRWEB) December 03, 2020

Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) announced today that reproductive endocrinologist, Jennifer Hsu, M.D., has joined the practice and will begin seeing patients in SGFs Woodbridge location late December 2020. As a University of Virginia Cavalier alumna, Dr. Hsu is proud to return to the state where her medical journey began.

The 85,000 babies and counting born at SGF is nothing short of a miracle, says Dr. Hsu. I am immensely proud to be a part of this team of people who are all 100% dedicated to the goal of building families and making dreams a reality.

Dr. Hsu will provide comprehensive fertility services to patients, including:

Dr. Hsu earned a full undergraduate merit scholarship from UVA, where she continued her graduate studies and earned a medical degree. As a medical student, Dr. Hsu extended her research efforts abroad in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, and was ultimately honored with the Medical Alumni Association (MAA) Outstanding Medical Student Award. Her time in Central America allowed Dr. Hsu to exercise her fluency in Spanish.

She then completed her residency at Columbia University Medical Center, followed by a move to Boston where Dr. Hsu completed her fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Massachusetts General Hospital. Today, she is board eligible in obstetrics and gynecology as well as reproductive endocrinology and infertility.

When patients are hurting, my vow is to stay by their side and help them through it, shares Dr. Hsu. Whether they need someone to listen, grieve with, or help them make a plan, I will be there. The journey to parenthood can be difficult, but I hope my patients never feel that they are alone.

Dr. Hsu is very active in the medical community. She is an experienced lecturer and oral examiner at Harvard Medical School and has spent time in Appalachia providing free medical and womens health services to residents. Additionally, Dr. Hsu is an accomplished researcher, having contributed to more than 15 presentations across the country on topics including intrauterine insemination (IUI), anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). She has also served as a peer-reviewer for several publications including the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.

Dr. Hsu is a very bright and compassionate physician who, on behalf of SGF, were very thankful to have part of our team, says Eric Widra, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at SGF.

Patients may schedule a new patient virtual physician consultation with Dr. Hsu by calling 1-877-761-1967 or submitting this brief form. Patients also have access to SGF Woodbridges unique financial options, such as the 100% refund program for IVF, that help make fertility treatment more affordable.

About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF)SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 85,000 babies born and 5,000+ 5-star patient reviews. With 37 locations throughout FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, we offer patients virtual physician consults, deliver individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including 100% refund guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.

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Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) Welcomes Reproductive Endocrinologist, Jennifer Hsu, MD, to the Northern Virginia Physician Team - PR Web

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