Massachusetts General Hospital

When the results of the CABANA trial of atrial fibrillation ablation compared with medical therapy were presented at the Heart Rhythm Society Annual Scientific Sessions in May 2018, reaction was swift and vociferous.

CHICAGO — The majority of patients with giant cell arteritis who are treated with prednisone are unsuccessful in tapering the drug, unless combined with tocilizumab, and more than 80% of disease-related flares occur while prednisone is still in use, according to data presented at the 2019 Interdisciplinary Autoimmune Summit.

ATLANTA — The combination of the histone deacetylase inhibitor entinostat and the anti-PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab induced clinical responses and appeared well-tolerated among patients with melanoma that progressed on prior anti-PD-1 treatment, according to results from the single-arm ENCORE 601 phase 1b/phase 2 clinical trial presented at American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting.

ATLANTA — The combination of savolitinib and osimertinib showed promising clinical activity among patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer resistant to prior EGFR-targeted therapies through MET amplification, according to interim results from two expansion cohorts of the TATTON trial presented at American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.

Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, has been elected president-elect of American Association for Cancer Research for the 2019-2020 term.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Hospitalists should be aware of several common barriers to discharge, such as overtreating hypertension, according to a presentation at Hospital Medicine 2019.

NEW ORLEANS —A partial adenosine A1 receptor agonist in patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction did not have a dose-response effect for 6-minute walk distance at 20 weeks and other endpoints such as activity levels, ECG monitoring and echocardiographic endpoints, according to data from the PANACHE trial presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session.

LAS VEGAS — At the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting, Jesse B. Jupiter, MD, discussed whether volar plating was enough for the treatment of distal radius fractures. He said volar plates are not always suitable or applicable for all patients with distal radius fractures and that additional technologies may be needed.

Neurotoxicity from chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy appeared associated with cytokine release syndrome, with blood levels of cytokines and other inflammatory markers linked to symptom severity, according to a retrospective study published in Blood.

NEW ORLEANS — Among patients with arterial hypertension, those who napped in midday had lower BP compared with those who did not take a nap, independent of dipping status, according to findings presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session.