Drug clinical trial improves survival for AML patients

Prof Andrew Wei has led a global trial for patients with AML

A landmark paper published today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) describes the results from a global trial across 148 sites in 23 countries, showing a 30% improvement in survival in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).

The Phase 3 clinical trial called QUAZAR, showed that a drug, called CC-486, significantly improved survival in older patients, over the age of 55, with the disease. 

New COVID-19 Diabetes registry already building up numbers

A global registry of COVID-19 related diabetes is already
collecting participants

by Riya Kiran

A team of international diabetes researchers from Monash University and King’s College London have established a global registry to investigate the possible connection between COVID-19 and diabetes.

Following the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, diabetes researcher Professor Paul Zimmet AO was bombarded with questions concerning this.

“I was getting emails from people in different countries saying their sons or daughters who had been infected with COVID-19 had, sometime soon after their infection, developed diabetes,” said Professor Zimmet. "What was going on?"

COVID-19 triggering new diabetes to be tracked in a new global CoviDiab registry

L-R: Profs Stephanie Amiel and Francesco Rubino of Kings
 College London, and Prof Paul Zimmet, Monash University

Emerging evidence suggests that COVID-19 may actually trigger the onset of diabetes in healthy people and also cause severe complications of pre-existing diabetes.

A letter published 13 June in the New England Journal of Medicine and signed by an international group of 17 leading diabetes experts involved in the CoviDiab project, a collaborative international research initiative - including Monash University Professor of Diabetes Paul Zimmet - announces the establishment of a Global Registry of new cases of diabetes in patients with COVID-19.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the increase: NEJM review

A/Prof Marcus Chen

Prof Deborah Williams

Professor Deborah Williamson (Doherty Institute) and Adjunct Associate Professor Marcus Chen (Melbourne Sexual Health Centre) are authors on a New England Journal of Medicine review article providing an overview of how both established and emerging sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the increase, and their recommendations for controlling the spread of STIs.

New England Journal of Medicine COVID-19 research updates

A special page has been created at NEJM.org with a collection of articles and other resources on the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, including clinical reports, management guidelines, and commentary.

Visit NEJM.org/coronavirus >>

Major surgery outcomes improved with TXA

Tranexamic acid (TXA) reduces the risk of
serious bleeding complications by 40%

New research shows the medication TXA could nearly halve the number of people who suffer complications with bleeding following open heart and other major surgery.

Tranexamic acid (TXA) reduces the risk of serious bleeding complications by 40 per cent, resulting in fewer blood transfusions and emergency re-operations, according to a global study which involved 30 hospitals in seven countries. It was led by a team at the Alfred Hospital and Monash University.

Doctors had been concerned about using TXA because of fears that it might increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. But the world-wide study, funded by the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) and the NHMRC, found that the drug did not increase thrombosis after open-heart surgery.

Perspective: Interpreting trial results - the P value continuum

xkcd: P-values

A recently published NEJM review article by Stuart Pocock and Gregg Stone reflects on how to interpret the primary outcome of a trial. Quote excerpted below:

"A well-designed trial derives its credibility from the inclusion of a prespecified, a priori hypothesis that helps its authors avoid making potentially false positive claims on the basis of an exploratory analysis of the data. Nevertheless, an unreasonable yet widespread practice is the labeling of all randomized trials as either positive or negative on the basis of whether the P value for the primary outcome is less than 0.05. This view is overly simplistic. P values should be interpreted as a continuum wherein the smaller the P value, the greater the strength of the evidence for a real treatment effect."

Reference: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1510064

Window to optimise HIV-1 therapy

17/01/2012 Dr Edwina Wright, an infectious diseases physician and clinical researcher in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Monash and at The Alfred with a program at The Burnet, had an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Patients who are started on antiretroviral therapy for HIV-1 infection within four months of estimated infection date — and who have higher counts of CD4+ T-cells at the initiation of therapy — demonstrate a stronger recovery of CD4+ T-cell counts than patients in whom therapy is started later.