Gastroenterology News

• EU Regulator Plans to Fast Track Variant-Modified COVID Vaccines Europe's medicines regulator said it has issued new guidance for drug makers that modify their COVID-19 vaccines to protect against variants of the virus to speed up the approval process.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• No Survival Benefit to Primary Resection Before Chemo in CRC Contrary to previous reports, primary tumor resection prior to chemotherapy did not confer a survival benefit in colorectal cancer patients in a randomized phase 3 study in Japan.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Missed Visits During Pandemic Cause 'Detrimental Ripple Effects' Patients with chronic diseases are more likely to have postponed care because of COVID-19 precautions, a survey finds, and physicians are seeing the consequences.
  Medscape Medical News, February 25, 2021
• More Published Data on 'Game-Changer' Drug for Obesity Subcutaneous semaglutide once-weekly together with a low-calorie diet and intensive behavioral therapy leads to over 10% greater weight loss than placebo, shows the STEP 3 study published in JAMA.
  Medscape Medical News, February 24, 2021
• Algorithm Uses Routine Blood Tests to Detect Advanced Liver Disease It may be possible to pick up occult liver cirrhosis with an algorithm that uses data from routine blood tests, according to new research.
  Reuters Health Information, February 22, 2021
• ASCO Announces New Advanced Liver Cancer Guidelines New guidelines from the American Society of Clinical Oncology were released to address the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
  Medscape Medical News, February 23, 2021
• Cancer Death Rates Continue to Fall in Europe, Except For... Cancer death rates overall continue to fall in the EU, with the exception of pancreatic cancer in both sexes and lung cancer among women.
  Medscape Medical News, February 23, 2021
• Diverticulitis: A New Standard of Care? Clinicians may opt for a fluoroquinolone-sparing approach by using amoxicillin-clavulanate, with no drop in efficacy, new data indicate.
  Medscape Medical News, February 22, 2021
• Macrophages That Heal Intestinal Inflammation Are Promising Target for IBD Therapy A subset of macrophages, PTGER4+ (EP4+), are the major drivers of epithelial regeneration after intestinal inflammation and are potential targets for inflammatory bowel disease therapy, researchers say.
  Reuters Health Information, February 19, 2021
• TCT 2021 Steroid Complications in GVHD Common, Boost Costs of Care Among 689 patients with a diagnosis of graft versus host disease following HSCT who received steroids, 97% had at least one steroid-related complication, according to a retrospective database analysis.
  Medscape Medical News, February 22, 2021
• How Do You Run a Hospital With No Running Water? With grit and ingenuity, Texas medical centers find. '2020 taught us to be agile as things change and to align our goals across different medical teams,' one physician said.
  Medscape Medical News, February 22, 2021
• Ustekinumab Works Well in Ulcerative Colitis in the General Population The monoclonal antibody ustekinumab appears to be at least as effective against ulcerative colitis in real-world practice as it was in the clinical trials that led to its approval, according to new research.
  Reuters Health Information, February 18, 2021
• How to Spot a Fake N95 Counterfeit N95 airborne particle-filtering face masks are on the rise, but recognizing phonies can be easy using a few simple steps.
  Medscape Medical News, February 19, 2021
• Adherent-Invasive E. Coli Metabolism Drives Inflammation in Crohn's Disease Researchers have identified the process by which adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) bacteria drive inflammation in Crohn's disease.
  Reuters Health Information, February 17, 2021
• Near-Infrared Imaging for Tumors Deep in Tissue, Such as GISTs Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging combined with machine learning may hold promise for identifying deep-tissue gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs).
  Medscape Medical News, February 18, 2021
• Ergonomic Consultation Spares Endoscopists a Pain in the Neck Assessment of position and posture by a physical therapist can help reduce and prevent injury in endoscopists, based on data from a pilot study of eight individuals.
  Medscape Medical News, February 18, 2021
• 1 in 5 Diabetes Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 Die in 28 Days Around a fifth of patients with diabetes hospitalized with COVID-19 infection will die within a month, although around half will be discharged, suggests an ongoing French study.
  Medscape Medical News, February 18, 2021
• Hospitalizations for Food Anaphylaxis Triple, but Deaths Down Cow's milk is the leading cause of fatal anaphylaxis among children, new data show.
  Medscape Medical News, February 18, 2021
• CDC Warns of Drug-Resistant Typhoid Fever Outbreak The new Salmonella Typhi strain is related to one in Pakistan and has infected at least 71 people in the US.
  Medscape Medical News, February 17, 2021
• Checkpoint Inhibitor Safety in Preexisting Autoimmune Diseases 'To our knowledge, this is the first study to bridge this knowledge gap by presenting 'real-world' data on the safety and efficacy of ICI on a national scale,' wrote Monique K. van der Kooij, MD.
  Medscape Medical News, February 17, 2021