Medical Bulletin 28/September/2022

A new study concludes that the 2020 European ban on menthol cigarettes made it more likely that menthol smokers would quit smoking, supporting previous Canadian research on the positive public health impact of banning menthol cigarettes.

The research team surveyed a national sample of adult smokers of menthol and non-menthol cigarettes in the Netherlands before and after the EU menthol ban. Of the menthol smokers surveyed before and after the ban, 26.1 per cent had quit smoking. This quit rate was higher than the control group of non-menthol smokers, of whom only 14.1 per cent had quit.

Reference:

Geoffrey T. Fong et al, Impact of the European Union's menthol cigarette ban on smoking cessation outcomes: Longitudinal findings from the 2020–2021 ITC Netherlands Surveys, appears in the journal Tobacco Control.

Intentionally losing weight can bring long-term health benefits for individuals with obesity, regardless of the method or strategy they use, according to a study of almost 200,000 people.

Those who lost more than 4.5kg had less weight gain and a lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those who did not lose weight, but lean individuals did not benefit, with weight loss attempts associated with longer-term weight gain and higher risks of type 2 diabetes.

Reference:

Si K, Hu Y, Wang M, Apovian CM, Chavarro JE, Sun Q (2022) Weight loss strategies, weight change, and type 2 diabetes in US health professionals: A cohort study. PLoS Med 19(9): e1004094. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004094

A clinical trial led by clinicians at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center showed a remarkable 20 percent advantage in the two-year overall survival rate for people with advanced melanoma who first received immunotherapy versus those who initially got targeted therapies. Progression-free survival, where the cancer is stable or improving, was also trending in favor of those who started on immunotherapy.

The multicenter, phase III trial, DREAMseq, was led by oncology professor Michael Atkins.

The DREAMseq trial found that for patients with melanoma that have a mutation in the BRAF gene, specifically a BRAF V600 mutation, immunotherapy is the better initial approach than giving drugs that specifical target this mutated pathway.

Reference:

Michael Atkins. et al,Combination dabrafenib and trametinib versus combination nivolumab and ipilimumab for patients with advanced BRAF-mutant melanoma: The DREAMseq Trial - ECOG-ACRIN EA6134,Journal of Clinical Oncology