Medical Bulletin 4/March/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Study finds a good night’s sleep may make it easier to stick to exercise and diet goals

People who reported getting regular, uninterrupted sleep did a better job sticking to their exercise and diet plans while trying to lose weight, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023.

The researchers examined whether good sleep health was related to how well people adhered to the various lifestyle modifications prescribed in a 12-month weight loss program. The weight-loss program included 125 adults (average age of 50 years, 91% female, 81% white) who met criteria for overweight or obesity (body mass index of 27-44) without any medical conditions requiring medical supervision of their diet or physical activity.

Reference:

Christopher E. Kline et al,AHA Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023.

Neoadjuvant pembrolizumab administered before surgery improves outcomes of melanoma patients: phase 2 clinical trial findings

A team of researchers from institutions across the United States, including Moffitt Cancer Center, launched a phase 2 clinical trial evaluating a new treatment option for this patient population. Their results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, show that treating resectable stage 3 and 4 melanoma patients with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab both before and after surgery greatly improves outcomes when compared to pembrolizumab given only after surgery.

Outcomes for melanoma patients have vastly improved thanks to new treatment options. However, those with high-risk disease who have their tumors surgically removed still have a substantial chance of relapse.

Reference:

Vernon Sondak, et al,Neoadjuvant-Adjuvant or Adjuvant-Only Pembrolizumab in Advanced Melanoma,New England Journal of Medicine,doi 10.1056/NEJMoa2211437.

Novel approach to enhance drug delivery for brain tumors in children developed

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor, accounting for about 20 percent of all brain tumors in children. It is highly aggressive and difficult to treat, and is considered incurable in nearly 30 percent of patients. Even children who are “cured” experience severe long-term disabilities and health issues, primarily due to the adverse side effects of radiation and chemotherapy. Site-directed drug delivery to the affected brain tissue is hindered by a distinct and highly regulated blood-brain barrier, which normally protects the brain from infections or other harmful substances.

Mount Sinai Health System and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center researchers have developed a new drug delivery approach that uses nanoparticles to enable more effective and targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs to treat brain tumors in children.

Reference:

Praveen Raju et al,Nature Materials.

Future flares of ulcerative colitis activity predicted using AI

Ulcerative colitis assessment could be improved after new research shows that an artificial intelligence model could predict flare-ups and complications after reading biopsies.

In a new paper published in Gastroenterology, researchers have trialled an AI diagnostic tool that can read digitised biopsies taken during colonoscopy.

The Computer-Aided Diagnostic model was able to predict the risk of flare-ups for ulcerative colitis, which is a relapsing-remitting condition and makes the prognosis for the disease uncertain. In the trial, the model was able to predict patients at risk of a flare in the disease as well as humans. The system was trained on existing digitised biopsies and was able to detect activity related to ulcerative colitis with 89% accuracy for positive results. It was also able to identify markers of inflammation activity and healing in the same area as biopsies were taken with 80% accuracy, similar to human pathologists.

Reference:

Professor Marietta Iacucci et al,Artificial Intelligence enabled histological prediction of remission or activity and clinical outcomes in ulcerative colitis,Gastroenterology.