Gastroenterology News

• New Drug Delivery System Promises More-Targeted Delivery of IBD Drugs Researchers at Progenity, in San Diego, California, are developing a new way to deliver drugs for inflammatory bowel disease directly to the colonic mucosa.
  Reuters Health Information, July 20, 2021
• FDA OKs Odevixibat for Pruritus Associated With Rare Liver Disease Odevixibat (Bylvay) is the first drug approved for the treatment of severe itching in children as young as 3 months with progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis.
  FDA Approvals, July 21, 2021
• Study Supports Chemopreventive Effect of Statins on Liver Cancer in NASH Cirrhosis New research provides supporting evidence for chemopreventive effects of statins on hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis cirrhosis.
  Reuters Health Information, July 15, 2021
• Building a Better FIT Test for Colon Cancer Screening An antibody-based multitarget FIT for colorectal cancer screening is more accurate in detecting advanced neoplasia compared with the standard FIT test, report Dutch researchers.
  Reuters Health Information, July 19, 2021
• AHA Concerned, Others Pleased by Price Transparency Penalty Hike CMS intends to raise the stakes to compel compliance with a mandate for disclosure of hospital prices, with a proposed annual penalty of as much as $2 million for larger organizations.
  Medscape Medical News, July 20, 2021
• ASCO 2021 Sharp Turn in Career Path: Leaving Academic Medicine Behind Dr David Schenkein had aspired to, and achieved, a career in academic medicine and envisaged staying "until they take me out in a box." So why did this physician move to industry?
  Medscape Medical News, July 20, 2021
• Rectal Diclofenac Likely Comparable to Rectal Indomethacin for Post-ERCP Pancreatitis An exploratory network analysis of post-retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) prophylaxis suggests that rectal diclofenac can be used interchangeably with rectal indomethacin to reduce costs, researchers say.
  Reuters Health Information, July 16, 2021
• Physicians Turning to Side Gigs for Extra Pay Nearly 4 in 10 doctors currently pursue another source of income in addition to medicine. A new survey explores what they are doing, how much they earn, and why they do it.
  Medscape Medical News, July 19, 2021
• Benefits From Moving More, Sitting Less for CRC Survivors More physical activity and less sedentary behavior are associated with better quality of life and less fatigue among colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors up to 2 years after treatment.
  Medscape Medical News, July 19, 2021
• TAVI Safe and Effective in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease Transcatheter aortic-valve implantation is safe and effective for patients with inflammatory bowel disease, according to what is believed to be the first study to assess TAVI outcomes in this patient population.
  Reuters Health Information, July 16, 2021
• High Medicaid Claims Denial Affecting Doc Participation: Study Physicians are less likely to take Medicaid patients in states where they lose a higher portion of potential revenue because of denials and billing costs.
  Medscape Medical News, July 19, 2021
• Nephrologist's Appeal to End 3-Year Suspension Is Denied Allegations include that Albert Kadri, MD, failed to comply with a new model of kidney care at Windsor Regional Hospital, in Ontario, Canada, and his actions were 'likely to expose patients to harm.'
  Medscape Medical News, July 19, 2021
• The Risk Factors Behind Infected Pancreatic Necrosis' Deadly Toll If undetected, infected pancreatic necrosis causes high rates of organ failure and mortality, which led a group of Finnish researchers to assess the key contributors to be on the lookout for.
  Medscape Medical News, July 19, 2021
• ILC 2021 Good Survival, Outcomes With TARE for HCC Transarterial radioembolization (TARE) was successfully and safely employed across 25 centers in eight European countries.
  Medscape Medical News, July 19, 2021
• Fungal Infections Associated With S. boulardii Probiotics An association was found between some commonly used probiotics and life-threatening fungal infections.
  Medscape Medical News, July 16, 2021
• Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Effectiveness Comparable in IBD Patients, General Population Preliminary real-world data from Israel show that COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in patients with IBD was comparable to that of the general population, researchers say.
  Reuters Health Information, July 15, 2021
• Donafenib OS Better Than Sorafenib in Advanced Liver Cancer Donafenib significantly improved overall survival versus sorafenib in first-line treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a phase-2/3 trial conducted in China.
  Reuters Health Information, July 14, 2021
• Novel Kinase Inhibitor Combo Promising for Refractory GI Tumors The type I and type II KIT inhibitors PLX9486 and sunitinib were safe and beneficial when coadministered to patients with refractory gastrointestinal stromal tumors in a phase 1, first-in-human study.
  Reuters Health Information, July 14, 2021
• PPIs Tied to Slightly Higher CRC Risk Than H2RAs With Long-Term Use A new study suggests there may be an increased risk of colorectal cancer with long-term use of proton pump inhibitors.
  Reuters Health Information, July 14, 2021
• 'Gold Cards' Allow Texas Docs to Skip Prior Authorizations Under a new law, the first in the US, physicians who meet medical necessity criteria thresholds are excused from having to receive insurer approvals for treatment.
  Medscape Medical News, July 15, 2021