Skylar Kenney, Assistant Editor

Presented during Cardinal Health’s Retail Business Conference, the findings show that 1 in 4 shoppers is 40 years of age or younger, compared to pharmacists’ expectation that the majority of their customers are between 51 and 64 years of age.

Research presented at the 2021 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Specialty Pharmacy Conference suggests overall medical expenses for oncology patients were significantly improved by using an integrated health-system specialty pharmacy (HSSP) care model.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ (ASHP) first annual survey of health-system specialty pharmacies (HSSPs) offered insights into the concerns of specialty pharmacists and provided an opportunity for professionals in the field to outline a potential future for specialty pharmacy.

Vaccinated individuals overall had large amounts of antibodies present compared to infected individuals, suggesting that vaccination both protects against becoming infected and reduces the likelihood of transmitting the virus to others.

The study analyzed nearly 4000 patients with these pathologies and 30,000 control individuals, examining the neurobiological basis for aggressive behavior.

Because viral clearance is compromised if HIV is allowed to replicate for an extended period of time—resulting in extensive damage to the immune system—controlling HIV with antiretroviral therapy may be critical to preventing this type of viral evolution in SARS-CoV-2 in patients with advanced HIV.

This action follows a recently completed phase 2a clinical trial, which demonstrated that 100% of the 10 enrolled patients met the study's primary and secondary efficacy endpoints of clinical cure at end of treatment as well as sustained clinical cure with no recurrence of CDI when examined on a 28-day follow-up visit.

According to the investigators, gene changes unique among individuals who responded to mirikizumab indicate that mirikizumab affects a distinct molecular healing pathway when compared to the spontaneous healing that occurred among the cohort administered the placebo.

A retrospective case series published in JAMA Cardiology found that although there are rare instances of myocarditis—inflammation of the heart muscle—in younger men following COVID-19 vaccination, the greater risk for heart damage and death comes from COVID-19 infection.

The investigators also found that the risk of spreading disease may be lower amongst those with breakthrough infections.

The messages offered alternatives to these prescription drugs and offered education for providers that is designed to lead to a change in medication.

This risk was not seen in older adults with dentures, which could indicate that the cognitive decline associated with tooth loss could be mitigated through timely and effective treatment with dentures, according to the investigators.

This risk decreased gradually according to age and length of time after an HZ episode, but epidemiological studies and the pathology of VZV vasculopathy both indicate that HZ is a key risk factor for stroke up to 1 year following an HZ episode.

New research presented at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer suggests the use of antibiotics may increase the risk of colon cancer, especially in individuals under age 50 years.

Investigators have identified metabolic and glycomic signatures in blood samples of post-treatment controllers, a rare population of HIV-infected individuals who can naturally sustain viral suppression after antiretroviral therapy.

The study evaluated vaccination trends among adults aged 18 years or older using data from the CDC, comparing the rates in Ohio before and after the implementation of the lottery with states that did not have lottery programs.

Greater risk for heart damaged come from coronavirus infection, and patients should not be discouraged from vaccination.

The investigators found that population-based cancer registries showed a 10.2% decline in real-time electronic pathology reports in 2020 compared to 2019.

Hypertension is a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia in older adults.

The investigators conducted a systematic review of the existing literature using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines to evaluate the efficacy of dietary supplements and alternative therapies for weight loss in participants aged 18 and older.

Investigators found that a single initial dose may be sufficient for patients with prior infection.

The investigators said that although pneumococcal vaccines were known to reduce severe cases of childhood pneumonia, no studies from Asia had measured their efficacy until now.

According to the authors of the KEYNOTE-826 trial results, this is the first anti-programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1)/PD-L1 therapy to demonstrate improvements in OS and PFS that were clinically meaningful and statistically significant regardless of PD-L1 status.

According to the study, lineage plasticity—the shift in castration-resistant prostate cancers from resembling glandular cells to neuroendocrine cells—may potentially be overcome through the use of bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) protein inhibitors.

These financial challenges can include difficulty paying medical bills or the inability to pay them at all, high financial distress, cost-related medication non-adherence, food insecurity, and delayed or foregone care due to cost.

Prior to this research, it was known that genetically removing the POLQ protein killed cells with BRCA gene defects, but no drug had been identified that prevented POLQ from functioning.

The omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid were applied first in high doses to lab-grown neurons and then in patients to understand the mechanism by which they reduce inflammation and depression.

The addition of daratumumab to lenalidomide and dexamethasone resulted in a significant benefit to overall survival in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who were ineligible for autologous stem cell transplant and were treated to progression, according to the results of the phase 3 MAIA study.

The condition is not preventable, but there are steps that can be taken to reduce LDL-C levels in children.

New protocol for processing saliva samples with a bead mill homogenizer before real-time PCR testing has shown higher sensitivity to COVID-19 than nasopharyngeal swab testing