November 28, 2007, 9:57 PM CT
Live kidney donors report high satisfaction rates
Live kidney donors suffer minimal health problems and 90 per cent would strongly encourage other people to a become a donor if a partner or family member needed a transplant, as per a research studyof more than 300 people reported in the recent issue of the UK-based urology journal BJU International.
Scientists from Egypt, where live donations are currently the only legal option, carried out detailed evaluations of 339 patients who attended follow-up clinics between January 2002 and January 2007.
Based at a centre which performs about 100 live donor transplants a year, they included patients who had donated kidneys between 1976 and the end of 2001 in their research.
Living donors remain the main option in developing countries where donations from dead donors have yet to establish roots, because of the lack of infrastructure or the implementation of legal criteria for brain death explains lead author Dr Amgad E El-Agroudy from the Urology and Nephrology Center at Mansoura University.
Even in developing countries, the increasing demand for kidneys has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of living donors being used. This had led to concerns about the risk involved in the procedure and its long-term consequences.
All of the people who participated in the study underwent an extensive physical and psychosocial assessment, which included a full range of laboratory tests and detailed medical history. Any medical problems were then compared with health tables for the general population.........
Posted by: Mark Read more Source
September 12, 2007, 8:01 PM CT
Clinical Trials Present Better Alternatives for Dialysis Patients
But an unhealthy kidney costs more-about $16 billion more, as per Prabir Roy-Chaudhury, MD, PhD, associate professor in the division of nephrology and high blood pressure at the University of Cincinnati (UC).
"It costs about $17 billion a year to care for patients with end-stage kidney disease," he said.
There are currently over 320,000 people undergoing hemodialysis in the United States, a process that costs taxpayers a minimum of $60,000 per patient annually,.
Hemodialysis is a technique in which a machine filters wastes out of a patient's blood once the kidney fails.
"In order to perform successful dialysis, it's critical to have a functioning vascular access," Roy-Chaudhury said.
There are two main types of permanent dialysis access: an arteriovenous fistula, which connects the artery and the vein directly, and an arteriovenous graft, which connects the artery and the vein using a plastic tube.
Unfortunately, these connections may only last between six and 12 months due to stenosis, or narrowing of the veins.
As a result, hemodialysis patients often have repeated hospital admissions and surgeries in order to keep their dialysis access open.
In fact, problems linked to vascular access are probably the biggest factors that reduce the quality of life for hemodialysis patients, Roy-Chaudhury said.........
Posted by: Mark Read more Source
August 24, 2007, 5:10 AM CT
Single-incision belly-button surgery to remove kidney
Using high-dexterity instruments, Dr. Jeffrey Cadeddu successfully removed a patient's kidney by performing a unique laproscopic nephrectomy entirely through the belly button.
Surgeons specializing in laparoscopic procedures at UT Southwestern Medical Center have successfully removed a patients kidney by performing a unique nephrectomy entirely through the belly button.
Dr. Jeffrey Cadeddu, associate professor of urology and radiology, performed the single keyhole access surgery, the first of its kind involving a kidney. The entire procedure was completed with only one incision and will leave the patient with a barely noticeable scar tucked in the umbilicus, or navel.
We are proud of this novel surgical technique, said Dr. Cadeddu, who leads the Clinical Center for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Urologic Cancer. Laparoscopic surgery already gives patients smaller incisions, less pain and a faster recovery. This transumbilical technique is a further extension of laparoscopic surgery, which essentially removes scarring from the patients skin.
Dr. Claus Roehrborn, chairman of urology at UT Southwestern, said, Single-access surgery is the next major advance in making surgery even less invasive. For Dr. Cadeddu to be the first to perform such a surgery and remove the intact organ in this manner is a testament to the tremendous advances in clinical medicine that are being made at UT Southwestern and in our department. Dr. Roehrborn is director of the Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay Center for Pediatric Urology.........
Posted by: Mark Read more Source
August 3, 2007, 9:59 PM CT
Radiofrequency ablation for kidney tumors
A relatively new, minimally invasive therapy was 93 percent successful in eradicating cancerous kidney tumors, as per a recent study conducted by scientists from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC.
I have performed a number of radiofrequency ablations of renal tumors and the results looked promising, said Ronald J. Zagoria, MD, lead author of the study. I wanted to scientifically review the data to better assess the results and look for patterns that might predict success or complications, he said.
The study consisted of 104 patients with a total of 125 tumors ranging from 0.6 cm to 8.8 cm. In all patients, a biopsy confirmed the presence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common type of kidney cancer. Of the 125 tumors, 95 were smaller than 3.7 cm and were completely eradicated in one therapy. Fourteen larger tumors were also eradicated after one therapy. Of the 16 remaining larger tumors, seven were eradicated after a second therapy.
Patients who are not good operative candidates, commonly due to co-existing illnesses, and those with multiple renal tumors, now have an excellent option for curing their tumors, said Dr. Zagoria. Surgery should be the first option, since the long-term results of this procedure have not been substantiated, he said.........
Posted by: Janet Read more Source
July 8, 2007, 10:09 PM CT
A gene that protects from kidney disease
Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University of Michigan have discovered a gene that protects us against a serious kidney disease. In the current online issue of Nature Genetics they report that mutations in the gene cause nephronopthisis (NPHP) in humans and mice. NPHP is a disease marked by kidney degeneration during childhood that leads to kidney failure requiring organ transplantation. The insights might help develop effective, noninvasive therapies.
The kidneys are the organs that help our body dispose of potentially harmful waste. Diseases that affect this fundamental function are very serious but so far only poorly understood. NPHP is such a disease; it causes the kidneys to degenerate and shrink starting early on in childhood often leading to renal failure before the age of 30. So far, kidney transplantation in early age has been the only way to save patients suffering from NPHP. With a new mouse model Mathias Treier and his group at EMBL have shed new light on the molecular mechanisms underlying NPHP opening up novel ways to treat the disease.
Our mice show striking similarities with NPHP patients, says Mathias Treier, group leader at EMBL. Very early on in their lives their kidney cells start to die and the mice develop all the characteristic disease symptoms. It is the first time that a mouse model reveals increased cell death as the mechanism underpinning kidney degeneration in NPHP. The genetic cause is a mutation in a gene called GLIS2.........
Posted by: Mark Read more Source
January 10, 2007, 8:25 PM CT
pivotal Nexavar kidney cancer study published in NEJM
Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the New England Journal of Medicine has published their pivotal Phase III trial demonstrating that Nexavar (sorafenib) tablets doubled median progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), or kidney cancer. The data, as assessed by independent radiologic review, are from the Treatment Approaches in Renal Cancer Global Evaluation Trial (TARGET) – the largest randomized controlled trial ever conducted in advanced RCC.
"Historically, patients with kidney cancer have had limited treatment options and there has been a particularly critical need for new therapies to help patients with advanced disease," said co-principal investigator Ronald Bukowski, M.D., Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program of The Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center in Cleveland, OH. "This landmark study demonstrated the efficacy, tolerability and clinical benefit of Nexavar, which has rapidly become a valuable weapon against this devastating disease."
Based on these data, Nexavar was granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the treatment of patients with advanced RCC, or kidney cancer, on December 20, 2005. Since then, Nexavar has been approved in nearly 50 countries. ........
Posted by: Mark Read more Source
December 20, 2006, 4:18 AM CT
Link Between Nanoparticles And Kidney Stones
Scientists at Mayo Clinic have successfully isolated nanoparticles from human kidney stones in cell cultures and have isolated proteins, RNA and DNA that appear to be linked to nanoparticles. The findings, which appear in the recent issue of the Journal of Investigative Medicine, are significant because it is one step closer in solving the mystery of whether nanoparticles are viable living forms that can lead to disease -- in this case, kidney stones.
Kidney stones are linked to pathologic calcification, the process in which organs and blood vessels become clogged with calcium deposits that can damage major organs like the heart and kidneys. What causes calcium deposits to build up is not entirely known. Medical researchers at Mayo Clinic are studying calcification at the molecular level in an effort to determine how this phenomenon occurs.
There is a growing body of scientific evidence that links calcification to the presence of nanosized particles, particles so small that some researchers question whether a nanoparticle can live and if so, play a viable role in the development of kidney stones.
The presence of proteins, RNA and DNA does not prove that nanoparticles are viable living forms because a genetic signature has not been identified, says the study's author John Lieske, M.D., a nephrologist with Mayo Clinic. A genetic signature would prove that nanoparticles are indeed living forms that replicate and can cause disease.........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
December 9, 2006, 5:45 PM CT
Sutent, One Of The New 'Targeted' Cancer Drugs
The new "smart" drugs are a really exciting element of cancer medicine. One of the new molecularly-targeted cancer drugs is Sutent. It is a "multi-targeted kinase inhibitor." A drug that inhibits several proteins involved in triggering replication in cancer cells. Basically, inhibits various kinases, a type of enzyme that transfers phosphate groups from high-energy donor molecules to specific target molecules.
Sutent (sunitinib) is an inhibitor of multiple protein kinases, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGFR), vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR), stem cell factor receptor (KIT), FMS-like tyrosine kinase (Flt3), colony stimulating factor (CSF-1R), and the neurotrophic factor receptor (RET). Because these proteins are involved in both tumor proliferation and angiogenesis, Sutent has both anti-tumor as well as anti-angiogenic properties. In addition, because Sutent inhibits multiple kinases, it possesses activity against multiple types of tumors.
Sutent can be used as a second-line drug for tumors that are non-responsive to Gleevec. The proto-oncogene KIT, a tyrosine kinase that is inhibited by Gleevec, is overexpressed in a majority of GISTs. Some patients have suffered relapses due to acquired point mutations in KIT, which prevents Gleevec from binding to the protein. Similar mutations have been characterized in EGFR from Iressa-resistant lung cancer patients.........
Posted by: Gregory D. Pawelski Permalink Source
November 15, 2006, 5:01 AM CT
Obesity An Advantage In Hemodialysis Patients
Despite significant improvements in dialysis therapys, currently over 20% of the 350,000 maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients in the United States die each year. A study published in Hemodialysis International finds that this high mortality rate may be attributed to malnutrition.
MHD patients experience what has been termed the "obesity paradox," wherein obesity is linked to increased chance of survival. "A larger body fat mass as seen in obesity probably represents protective reserves that may mitigate the adverse effects of malnutrition in patients," as per Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh M.D., author of the study.
MHD patients tend to have a high degree of protein-energy malnutrition and inflammation. The combination of these two conditions, termed Kidney Disease Wasting (KDW), leads to increased risk of death. On the other hand, it has been shown that an increase in protein intake yields the greatest survival in patients.
The study suggests that improved diet as well as appetite-stimulating agents may be a way to improve nutrition and, consequently, outcome in MHD patients. Understanding the factors that lead to KDW will be the key to improving survival in MHD patients, as well as in the 20 to 40 million Americans who exhibit similar risk-factor paradoxes such as those with chronic heart failure, AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis and malignancy.........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
November 7, 2006, 7:08 PM CT
Enzyme For Treatment Of Diabetic Kidney Disease
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine scientists have observed that an enzyme called ACE2 may hold the potential to treat diabetic kidney disease, the most common form of kidney disease.
In the laboratory, scientists led by Daniel Batlle, professor of medicine in the Feinberg School, chief of the nephrology/high blood pressure division and staff nephrologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, have found low levels of the ACE2 enzyme in the glomeruli of the kidneys of diabetic mice. When ACE2 was further decreased with an inhibitor drug, kidney disease worsened. Studies are now needed using compounds that increase the level of ACE2 in the kidneys of diabetic mice to see if it reverses or prevents kidney disease from developing, Batlle said.
The experiments appear in a report by Ye et. al in the recent issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Diabetes, which affects 230 million people worldwide and 21 million in the United States, is the leading cause of kidney failure. About one-third of patients with diabetes will go on to develop kidney disease. In diabetes, the small blood vessels in the kidneys are injured and the kidneys cannot clean the blood properly. In 2002, a total of 153,000 people in the U.S. with kidney failure due to diabetes were living on chronic dialysis or with a kidney transplant.........
Posted by: JoAnn Permalink Source
November 7, 2006, 4:49 AM CT
More Hemodialysis May Improve Survival
A study recently published in Hemodialysis International observed that more frequent hemodialysis therapys (five or more weekly) can significantly increase the survival rate of patients suffering from irreversible kidney failure. Typical therapy in the U.S. generally involves three sessions weekly.
The study examines the mortality rate of 117 U.S. patients. Those receiving five or more therapys per week were shown to have a 61% better chance of survival when in comparison to patients receiving conventional therapy.
"More frequent hemodialysis has been shown to improve patient well-being, reduce symptoms during and between therapys and have beneficial effects on clinical outcomes," as per Christopher R. Blagg M.D., lead researcher of the study.
U.S. hemodialysis patients continue to have a high annual mortality rate, despite a number of improvements in dialysis and overall medical care. Increasing the frequency of dialysis may be an effective means of improving patient survival.........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
October 31, 2006, 4:01 AM CT
Topiramates Increases Risk Of Kidney Stones
Drs. Khashayar Sakhaee (left), chief of mineral metabolism, and Dion Graybeal.
Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Cente
Topiramate (Topamax), a drug usually prescribed to treat seizures and migraine headaches, can increase the propensity of calcium phosphate kidney stones, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
A study - the largest cross-sectional examination of how the long-term use of topiramate affects kidney-stone formation - appears in the recent issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
Several case reports have described an association between topiramate and the development of kidney stones, but this complication had not been well recognized and physicians have not informed patients about the risk, the UT Southwestern scientists said. More important, the mechanism of stone formation was largely unknown previously.
"The wide-spread and escalating use of topiramate emphasizes the importance of considering the long-term impact of this drug on kidney-stone formation," said Dr. Khashayar Sakhaee, senior author of the study and chief of mineral metabolism at UT Southwestern.
More than 29 million Americans suffer from migraines, with women being affected three times more often than men, as per the National Headache Foundation.
"Topiramate is probably one of the most usually prescribed and most effective neurological medications right now," said Dr. Dion Graybeal, assistant professor of neurology and an author of the study.........
Posted by: Daniel Permalink Source
October 15, 2006, 6:43 PM CT
Kidney Damage After Heart Surgery
The occurence rate of kidney damage linked to coronary artery bypass surgery has increased significantly over the past 16 years in the United States, but the rate of death from such damage has decreased significantly during the period, as per a new analysis.
In their analysis of more than 5 million discharges from hospitals across the United States, the scientists at Duke University Medical Center observed that the occurence rate of acute renal failure linked to coronary artery bypass surgery increased almost five-fold during the study period. The scientists estimate that approximately 20,000 cases of the disorder occur nationwide each year.
The rate of death from acute renal failure caused by bypass surgery dropped almost three-fold during the study period, the scientists said. Still, patients with the disorder tend to have higher death rates, and also to require longer hospital stays, than patients who do not experience kidney damage after surgery.
The findings suggest that current strategies used to prevent acute renal failure following bypass surgery may not be as effective as previously thought, the scientists said.
"Postoperative acute renal failure remains a serious complication of bypass surgery that does not seem to have been influenced by any strategies designed to prevent it," said Patricia McGugan-Clark, R.N., an intensive care nurse and member of the study team. "More research needs to be conducted to identify those patients who are most susceptible to acute renal failure and which strategies are most effective".........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
September 20, 2006, 9:40 PM CT
White Blood Cells And Transplanted Kidneys
In an example of biological irony, the same white blood cell chemistry known to damage kidneys used for transplants may also help prevent such damage, as per a federally funded study in genetically engineered mice at Johns Hopkins.
Scientists have long known that when blood flow is cut off and then returned to transplanted kidneys or other organs, immune system cells called T lymphocytes produce toxic natural chemicals that contribute to ischemic reperfusion injury (IRI). Nature cannot distinguish between deliberate surgical wounds needed to remove and re-implant a donor kidney and other kinds of organ damage in which certain toxic chemicals are needed to clean up or remove bad tissue.
But in the new study reported in the recent issue of The Journal of Immunology, the Hopkins team reports that that T cells can also play a role in reducing cellular damage in IRI kidneys, as per Hamid Rabb, M.D., medical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
IRI occurs in 30 percent to 40 percent of kidneys removed from dead donors, resulting in lower kidney survival rates, shortened kidney life and a cost increase of approximately $20,000 per patient from the initial hospital stay and therapy alone, as per Rabb. Researchers therefore are interested in identifying means of preventing or rapidly treating IRI, but one barrier to greater understanding has been the inability to detect the lymphocytes in the kidney during the first critical six hours after blood flow is returned.........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
September 18, 2006, 9:51 PM CT
Link Between Kidney Cancer And Sunlight Exposure
Closer to the equator you live, lower is your chances for kidney cancer. Using newly available data researchers have shown a clear association between deficiency in exposure to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B (UVB), and kidney cancer.
UVB exposure triggers photosynthesis of vitamin D3 in the body. This form of vitamin D also is available through diet and supplements. Previous studies from this core research team have shown an association between higher levels of vitamin D3 and a lower risk of cancers of the breast, colon and ovary.
"Kidney cancer is a mysterious cancer for which no widely accepted cause or means of prevention exists, so we wanted to build on research by one of the co-authors, William Grant, and see if it might be related to deficiency of vitamin D," said study co-author Cedric Garland, Dr. P.H., professor of Family and Preventive Medicine in the UCSD School of Medicine, and member of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center.
There will be approximately 208,500 cases and 101,900 deaths from kidney cancer worldwide in 2006, including 39,000 new cases and 12,700 deaths in the United States, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the American Cancer Society.
The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer's online edition dated September 15, is the research team's newest finding relating exposure to the sun as a source of vitamin D, and estimated vitamin D deficiency to higher rates of several major types of cancer.........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
September 2, 2006, 10:05 PM CT
Reducing contrast material in elderly
The dose of contrast material can be effectively reduced by at least 10% for elderly patients undergoing a multi-detector CT examination of the pancreas and biliary region a new study finds. When the dose is reduced, the cost of the examination and the risk of complications is reduced. This study was conducted by the Department of Technical Radiology at Nagoya University School of Health Science in Nagoya, Japan.
"When interpreting CT images acquired using the established protocol in our clinical practice, it was noted that in some examinations of elderly patients, contrast enhancement of the pancreatic parenchyma was too intense," said Shigeki Itoh, MD, lead author of the study. "Therefore, we speculated that it might be possible to reduce the dose and rate of contrast material injection without adversely affecting the degree of contrast enhancement in elderly patients," said Dr. Itoh.
The study included 112 patients, ranging from 23-80 years old who had known or suspected pancreatobiliary disease who were split into three groups (60 years old or younger with a contrast injection of 0.08 milliliters/kg/sec, 60 years old or older with a contrast injection of 0.08 milliliters/kg/sec, and 60 years old or older with a contrast injection of 0.07 milliliters/kg/sec).........
Posted by: Sue Permalink Source
August 31, 2006, 4:38 AM CT
Drink Orange Juice To Keep Kidney Stones Away
A daily glass of orange juice can help prevent the recurrence of kidney stones better than other citrus fruit juices such as lemonade, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered.
The findings indicate that eventhough a number of people assume that all citrus fruit juices help prevent the formation of kidney stones, not all have the same effect. The study is available online and is scheduled would be reported in the Oct. 26 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Medically managing recurrent kidney stones requires dietary and changes in lifestyle as well as therapy such as the addition of potassium citrate, which has been shown to lower the rate of new stone formation in patients with kidney stones.
But some patients can't tolerate potassium citrate because of gastrointestinal side effects, said Dr. Clarita Odvina, assistant professor of internal medicine at the Charles and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research and the study's lead author. In those cases, dietary sources of citrate such as orange juice may be considered as an alternative to pharmacological drugs.
"Orange juice could potentially play an important role in the management of kidney stone disease and may be considered an option for patients who are intolerant of potassium citrate," Dr. Odvina said.........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
August 1, 2006, 9:25 PM CT
How Kidneys Retain Proteins
Image courtesy of acem.org.uk
New research may finally settle a decades-old debate about how the kidney keeps valuable blood proteins from harmfully slipping into the urine, a serious health symptom that often precedes kidney failure.
In genetically modified mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis captured images of a defective version of a kidney structure leaking a substance from the blood into the urine. The images suggest that the structure, known as the glomerular basement membrane (GBM), normally plays a key role in keeping blood proteins out of the urine.
The finding, published in the recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, will help doctors understand nephrotic syndrome, a condition with symptoms that include blood proteins in the urine. The syndrome can be triggered by a variety of genetic and environmental factors and leads to kidney failure over a varying time period.
"All the therapys we now use for nephrotic syndrome are either non-specific, meaning that we can't say for sure that they directly address the problem, or they are toxic," notes lead author George Jarad, M.D., a postdoctoral research scholar. "The first step to developing a specific therapy is to understand exactly what's happening. We have to know the details of the process before we can devise a remedy."........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
July 31, 2006, 6:48 AM CT
Diagnosis And Referrals For Kidney Disease
Results of a national study of 304 U.S. physicians, in which "mock" patients' symptoms were presented for diagnosis, suggest that a sizeable percentage of primary care doctors probably fail to properly diagnose and refer patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Their findings, published in the recent issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, show that of 126 kidney specialists surveyed, 97 percent properly diagnosed CKD and 99 percent would have recommended specialized kidney care for the "patient." But only 59 percent of the 89 family physicians and 78 percent of 89 general internal medicine physicians fully recognized the signs and symptoms of CKD. And referrals to a nephrologist were made by only 76 percent of the family physicians and only 81 percent of general internists.
"We, as physicians, can certainly do better," says L. Ebony Boulware, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and lead author of the study.
"Millions of people have kidney disease, but a substantial number may not have their disease recognized," Boulware added. "Simply put, our study shows that primary care physicians are not recognizing kidney disease in high-risk patients as often as they should".
In the study, the Hopkins group asked the surveyed physicians to evaluate the medical files of a simulated patient being treated by a primary-care doctor and suffering from progressive CKD. CKD is a growing epidemic, affecting an estimated 10 million Americans. The medical "record" contained clues to the condition indicating that, based on guidelines issued in 2000 by the National Kidney Foundation, the patient should be referred to a nephrologist for evaluation of CKD.........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
June 19, 2006, 9:23 PM CT
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Posted by: Janet Permalink
June 4, 2006, 8:51 AM CT
New Drug Combo For Kidney Cancers
By using a new combination of two anticancer drugs, scientists at Duke University Medical Center have dramatically improved response rates of patients with metastatic kidney cancer, which is now generally considered incurable.
The results suggest that combining the two drugs may slow the disease's progression in significant numbers of patients, eventhough the drug combination is not a cure, said the researchers.
In the study, 40 percent of patients who received the newly approved drug sorafenib together with the established drug interferon-alpha experienced "major shrinkage" of their kidney tumors and tumors that had metastasized, or spread elsewhere. A "major" response is generally is defined as 30 percent or greater shrinkage of all tumors in the body.
In comparison, only 5 percent of patients who receive sorafenib alone show a major response, recent studies have shown. Similarly, just 10 percent to 15 percent of patients who receive only interferon alpha, considered the standard therapy for kidney cancer, show a major response.
"By combining the drugs, we are seeing more major responses in greater numbers of patients, but we don't yet know how long the responses will last," said Jared Gollob, M.D., associate professor of medicine and immunology at Duke. "There are great new drugs on the market with relatively low toxicity, but the question physicians now face is how to make them work better for patients."........
Posted by: Mark Permalink Source
