University Of California San Francisco

The phase 2 registration trial designed to evaluate ImmunoPulse IL-12 in combination with pembrolizumab for unresectable metastatic melanoma showed an increase in response rates among patients who were not expected to respond to anti–PD-1 therapy alone.

SEATTLE — Peter Hunt, MD, associate professor of medicine, division of experimental medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and member of the CROI 2017 program committee, discusses a session that focused on inflammation and age-related complications in patients with HIV. The session included data on an IL-1 beta inhibitor against atherosclerotic inflammation; the relationship between protease inhibitors and cardiovascular disease; and the impact of smoking cessation on cancer incidence in HIV–infected patients. 

WASHINGTON — Frailty — a syndrome of weight loss, weakness, slowness, exhaustion and inactivity — was associated with mortality, poor physical and cognitive function and overall functional decline in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, according to findings presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

While research on the gut microbiome and its relevance to health and disease is still in its early stages, the data so far suggest that therapies involving modification of the gut microbiota may show promise for several chronic diseases, according to a review article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

WASHINGTON — At the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting, Matthew D. Cascino, MD, in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of California, San Francisco, reviewed his study on several factors — relapsing disease, BMI, PR3 positivity and induction treatment with rituximab — and their association with glucocorticoid exposure in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis.

At the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting, Corinna C. Zygourakis, MD, discussed differences in operative time and patient outcomes identified in a retrospective study of neurosurgical cases performed in overlapping and non-overlapping ORs from 2012 to 2015 in the department of neurosurgery at University of California San Francisco. Among their findings, she and colleagues identified a significant difference in the types of cases performed in an overlapping vs. a non-overlapping OR setting, with more overlapping spine cases being of a routine nature.

Patients who screened positive for unmet basic resource needs and were enrolled in a program to address those needs showed statistically significant improvements in BP and cholesterol levels, but not blood glucose level, according to recent findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

WASHINGTON — Concomitant class 5 lupus nephritis, along with a lower urine protein to creatinine ratio at baseline, were individually associated with complete renal response in patients with lupus, according to data presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

The next U.S. president should make advancing health care and the health of Americans a priority, according to an editorial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Preconception care for women with inflammatory bowel disease reduces their risk for relapse during pregnancy by increasing smoking cessation and adherence to medication, according to the results of a prospective study.