Clinical Trials and Medical Blog

A phase II trial on axitinib, a new experimental drug for treating patients with cytokine-refractory, metastatic kidney cancer who have a poor response to more traditional drugs has shown promising results according to a new study published in the The Lancet Oncology.

In an intention to treat analysis, the study produced the following results:

• Of the 52 patients, 2 responded completely and 21 partially.
• This equated to an objective response rate of 44.2 per cent.
• The median response rate was 23.0 months (range 4.2 to 29.8 months).
• But 12 of 23 initial responders progressed with response durations of 4.2 to 26.5 months.
• Also, 22 patients showed stable disease for more than 8 weeks, with 13 of them for 24 weeks or more.
• 4 patients had early disease progression, 3 had missing response data.
• Median time to progression was 15.7 months (range 0.03 to 31.5 months).
• Median overall survival was 29·9 months (range 2·4 to 35·8 months).
• Adverse events linked to treatment included diarrhoea, hypertension, fatigue, nausea, and hoarseness.
• High blood pressure was found in 30 patients.
• Of these, all but 8 responded to blood pressure treatment. 7 of the 8 had a history of high blood pressure at enrollment.

Read more here

Nasal labial folds: you know - the folds and lines (wrinkles) that are determined to develop into permanent grooves on the side of your mouth, in your cheeks and up to your nose. They’re more than just laugh lines. Even if they were formed by laughing, you don’t feel like laughing now because every time you see them, you know they are winning the war of aging.

Flabby muscles make you look older; if your arm muscles jiggle, those muscles need exercise. If your thighs look dimply or the skin on your upper inner thigh feels thickly soft, you can firm and tone that area with exercise. The same with a thick waist, a droopy backside or a bulging tummy; exercise is the solution.

An exercised body looks streamlined; improved posture means you no longer slouch and your tummy looks flatter because your core muscles have new life and strength; they’re in better shape from oxygenated blood, contractions and resistance.

The face and neck muscles can become flabby, too. When these muscles soften and then droop, it is blatantly apparent that something unflattering is occurring.

Mind you, aging in the face is sinister because it takes a lot of years for faces to develop lines, folds and sags. By age forty, most people are seeing the early stages of muscle atrophy when their eyelids feel and look heavy, by fifty, the jaw feels spongy and you see that droopiness is affecting your good looks.

The look of old will affect your confidence and no matter how you wear your hair, or how much makeup you use, you will still see sagging. You can disguise a multitude of aging in the body by the clothes you wear – black, loose fitting clothing can conceal waist, tummy, hips, thighs and arms but how can you mask aging in the face?

Thankfully, there are safe and sane techniques that will save your face and they are easy to master. Facial exercises will quickly isolate the affected areas of your face and in just minutes a day, you can deliberately, systematically, and consistently help your face look healthier, prettier, and younger.

These exercises are not contortions; rather, they are isometric and resistance exercises that will shape and contour your face easily and simply without the high costs typically associated with cosmetic or plastic surgery.

From the moment you begin this incredible transformation process, you will see and feel the difference in your muscles and skin every time you perform the exercise movements.

Successfully exercising your cheeks to lift those laugh lines requires you to learn how to anchor the muscles near the nose so when they contract they reposition higher near the ear in the hairline. Have you stood in front of your mirror and pulled the hairline up and back just wishing you could iron out those lines that run from the nose to the mouth?

Exercise helps this to happen. Not just one exercise. Several exercises target specific muscles and muscle groups to contract the cheek muscles up and back to the ear. Contractions and resistance movements plump up the muscles, helps the skin to look healthier from the increased blood supply and gives your face a toned and tightened look.

The muscles in the face weave over and under each other; one end attaches to bone, the other end attaches to either skin or another muscle. This means that when the muscles begin their downward slide, they pool into other muscles and muscle groups, depressing the face making one look tired and even old.

You can stop this.

Surgeons do not want you to know that you can shape and contour your face with facial exercise. They want you to believe that you need injections, surgery and other costly modalities to keep you looking younger.

Exercise is so easy and it makes sense. Consider this, in just minutes a day you can create visible changes that will turn into lasting results. In the privacy of your home, using only your thumbs and fingers, you have the power to reshape and contour your face so that you look younger and healthier without surgery, injections or risky procedures.

For the rest of your life, this exercise program will work for you and you can forever look substantially younger. It’s the best kept secret!

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It is that time of year when the Flu is flourishing in the workplace, classrooms, hospitals, and homes. The influenza virus differs from the common cold in the sudden onset of symptoms. These are severe headaches, fever, chills, muscle aches and sometimes, nausea and diarrhea. The following are some strategies to stay healthier, this flu season.

Get the flu shot. There are three types of flu. However, the type A virus is constantly changing which tricks the body into believing that it is fighting a new virus. The flu shot is the best line of defense in fighting the flu which is most prevalent.

Stay home when ill. Even though the common mode of thought is to drag our bodies to work when we are sick, it is not necessarily the best mode of thought. Studies have shown that sick and ill workers actually reduce productivity which costs the company money, not to mention the inconvenience to other workers who are infected. Use your sick time.

Wash your hands frequently. The key to removing germs, which could spread infection, is soap, water and friction. Wash your hands briskly and frequently. Keep a hand sanitizer on your person or near you, when a restroom is not readily available.

Eat yogurt or take a supplement containing probiotics. Probiotics are nature’s friendly germs. A large percentage of immune cells, that ward off disease, live in our digestive tract. Keeping a larger percentage of probiotics or beneficial bacteria to harmful bacteria in our intestines helps to ward off colds and flu.

Hydrate your environment, inside and out. Keep a few bowls of warm water around your house to increase moisture inside your house. Drink six to eight glasses of water a day. A lack of adequate hydration lowers the immune system making you susceptible to colds and flu. Drink tap, purified or spring water. Distilled water contains no minerals.

Eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. Colorful berries provide a natural mix of antioxidants. Orange vegetables are a great source of beta-carotene. Citrus fruits are rich in vitamin C. Thinking in terms of a rainbow of color, of different fruits and vegetables, will ensure that you get the vitamins necessary for good health.

Make sure to get adequate sleep. The average American subsists on two hours less sleep, a night, than our ancestors. Studies suggest that most of us require a little more than eight hours of sleep a night. Lack of adequate sleep causes our bodies to produce fewer antibodies, resulting in a lower immune system. Adequate sleep is crucial to good health.

Have a regular exercise regimen. Moderate exercise, thirty to sixty minutes, three times a week helps boost immunity. An exhaustive workout can suppress the immune system for the short term. Find an exercise regimen that works for you.

All of these strategies will help you to live a healthier life, as well as provide protection against the flu. Try and make these strategies a part of your everyday life and you should be rewarded with less colds and flu when the flu season hits.

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A team at Newcastle University are beginning a trial this week that could give hope to thousands of sufferers of muscular dystrophy.

A new treatment called molecular patch therapy has been developed which has the potential to give boys born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) the chance to preserve their muscle function and live into old age.

In a world first, the antisense oligonucleotide (AO) patches work by masking the faulty part of the gene (exon 51) and allowing shortened but functional proteins to be formed.

DMD affects one in 3,500 boys and is caused by reduced production of dystrophin protein - vital for muscle function. The progression of the condition is so severe that untreated boys lose the ability to walk by their early teens are only expected to live into their twenties.

From the Newcastle University website:

“This is a major breakthrough for the treatment of DMD,” said Professor Francesco Muntoni, head of the neuromuscular unit at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, “as conventional gene therapy approach for this disorder has proven to be problematic. Animal work has suggested that the molecular patch has worked well and showed a very significant restoration in dystrophin function”.

Professor Kate Bushby and Professor Volker Straub from the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle University will be recruiting nine young men from across the country and preparing them for the treatment. The trial participants will need to be aged 12 – 17 with DMD and they will have the molecular patch administered by injection into a small muscle in the foot. Subject to the trial’s success, there is already a plan to proceed with another trial to deliver the molecular patch under the skin, so that all muscles in the body could be treated.

Professor Bushby of Newcastle University said ”This is very important work to be involved with and a reflection of the long -standing interest in muscular disease here in Newcastle. We’re one of only three specialist centres in the country and this is the first step to what might be a gene based therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.”

Read the full story here

Nuts of all kinds (I am talking peanuts, cashews etc) have a mixed reputation. They are high in fat, but have no carbohydrates. Many people I know will not eat any type of nut because of their high fat content. Nuts have a very important role in a healthy weight loss plan.

First, the fat in nuts is 90% percent unsaturated, which means it helps keep your arteries clean of cholesterol. Remember saturated fats, make you fat and clog your veins, unsaturated fats only cause you to gain weight. Do not let that scare you off; we need some fats in our diet.

Second, nuts have of no carbohydrates or sugar, which means they do not cause any insulin release, which is associated with weight gain. They are also so a great source of protein, one of the best of any non-meat food.

Do not go over board, nuts do have a lot of calories. But they also stay with you along time. If you find you are hungry between meals, have your self a serving of nuts. Make sure to eat one serving, read the label.

They can keep you from being hungry, because they have a lot of fat and protein. They also do not trigger the body to release insulin, which can cause you to get hungry.

Do not eat more then one serving a day. Any type will do so eat which ones you like they all have the same basic nutrients. They will also help you lower your cholesterol, because of the high amount of unsaturated fats.

I know they have some fat, but if your weight loss plan is good and you the nuts by them selves, with out any type of sugar you will be fine. Drink water or diet soda pop with them. If you are watching you sodium you may want to eat unsalted nuts, or talk about with your doctor.

So, the next time your need a quick snack, grab a handful of cashews, almonds or peanuts and enjoy.

We’ve had a couple of articles and community comments about Zyban and other ways to stop smoking. When you decide to stop smoking the most difficult part is to resist the urges. It doesn’t matter that each craving lasts only 3-5 minutes. It’s still the whole 5 minutes to battle with your willpower! These seven tips will help you to resist the urge to smoke one urge at a time.

1. Remind Yourself Why You Quit

Every time you experience a craving remind yourself why you quit. It’s the excellent idea to take a blank index card and list all the reasons why you decided to quit smoking. List as many as you can, the more the better. If necessary, take the second index card. Carry them with you all the time. Every time you feel the urge to smoke take the index card and slowly read all your reasons why you decided to stop. After you finish reading your urge will pass! (If not, read them one more time or come up with more reasons.)

2. Reward Yourself

Make it a habit to reward yourself at the end of each nonsmoking week. Think of something you want (it doesn’t have to be something expensive, a nice home made meal or hot bath will work). Take the index card and write down what would you give yourself at the end of the week. When the urge comes take a look at the index card with your reward. Isn’t it worth coping for 3 minutes?

3. Be prepared for your urges

Get yourself prepared for the urge to smoke in advance. In most cases something triggers the craving (certain feelings, people, or places). You have to know what triggers the urge.

Lets do a really quick exercise. Take a blank piece of paper and divide it into 2 columns. On the one side list your triggers (like “stuck in traffic”, “drinking morning coffee”, “arguing with colleague”…) and in the second column write down the alternative course of action.

For example, instead of smoking while drinking your morning coffee you could read a newspaper. Instead of smoking after the hot argument with your colleague you can take a walk around a block or write down everything you think about this person, then tier this piece of paper in shreds and throw it away. Don’t be lazy, write it down! This exercise really works!

4. Call your friend

This method works great. Call someone who can support you, who can talk with you for a couple of minutes. You can call your nonsmoking friend, or someone who’s trying to quit smoking too.

5. Distract yourself with a quick task

Think of a small task you have to do, something what would take you 5-10 minutes. Make a call, send a fax, make yourself a cup of coffee, water the plant in your office. Anything! Your task is to distract yourself until the urge will pass. (Hint: Try to find activity that makes smoking impossible!)

6. Drink a Glass of Water

Take a glass of water and drink it with a straw. First of all having something in your mouth to chew on will help, second it will take you a couple of minutes to drink the whole glass and the urge will pass. Plus, don’t forget that you’re supposed to drink 8 glasses of water every day!

7. Power Tip

That’s the disgusting one, but it often works. Print a small picture of smoker’s lungs and put it somewhere in your wallet. I know the view is not pretty, but something like this can stop you dead on your track from lighting up. Take a look! Really! THIS could be your lungs! You love yourself, and you respect your body. Why harm yourself?