Archive for category: News

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that intermittent fasting (IMF), specifically the 4:3 method, may be more effective than daily calorie restriction (DCR) over a 12-month period when paired with behavioral support.

This randomized clinical trial involved 165 adults aged 18 to 60 with a body mass index (BMI) between 27 and 46 kg/m². The participants were randomly assigned to one of two dietary strategies within a comprehensive behavioral weight loss program.

One group followed the 4:3 IMF regimen, eating normally four days per week and restricting energy intake by 80% on three nonconsecutive days. The other group adopted a traditional DCR approach, cutting daily caloric intake by 34%, designed to match the overall weekly calorie deficit of the IMF group. Both cohorts also received intensive group-based behavioral support and were advised to engage in 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity weekly.

After 12 months, the results found that the intermittent fasting group lost an average of 2.89 kilograms more than the daily calorie restriction group, a statistically significant difference (P = 0.040). The primary outcome measurement at 12 months highlighted that intermittent fasting, when backed by consistent behavioral support, led to greater sustained weight loss.

The analysis of this study was based on an intention-to-treat model, accounting for all randomized participants, even if they did not complete the study. Of the initial 165 participants (84 in the IMF group and 81 in the DCR group), 125 completed the yearlong trial. The average participant was 42 years old, predominantly female (73.9%), and had a mean BMI of 34.1 kg/m².

Although both groups benefited from the structured support system and physical activity recommendations, the findings highlight a modest but noteworthy edge for the intermittent fasting group. This research provides strong evidence that 4:3 IMF is not only feasible over a year but also slightly more effective than conventional calorie-cutting methods when behavioral guidance is included.

As intermittent fasting continues to gain popularity, this trial offers credible, science-backed support for its efficacy, especially for individuals seeking structured, sustainable weight loss strategies.

Source:

Catenacci, V. A., Ostendorf, D. M., Pan, Z., Kaizer, L. K., Creasy, S. A., Zaman, A., Caldwell, A. E., Dahle, J., Swanson, B., Breit, M. J., Bing, K., Wayland, L. T., Panter, S. L., Scorsone, J. J., Bessesen, D. H., MacLean, P., & Melanson, E. L. (2025). The effect of 4:3 intermittent fasting on weight loss at 12 months : A randomized clinical trial: A randomized clinical trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.7326/ANNALS-24-01631

Australia: A new randomized clinical trial has demonstrated that metformin, a drug commonly used to manage type 2 diabetes, may significantly reduce knee pain in individuals suffering from osteoarthritis and living with overweight or obesity. The findings were published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on April 24, 2025.

Caltech professor of medical engineering Wei Gao and his colleagues are envisioning a smart bandage of the future-a “lab on skin” that could not only help patients and caregivers monitor the status of chronic wounds but also deliver treatment and speed up the healing process for those cuts, incisions, scrapes, and burns that are slow to heal on their own.

In 2023, Gao’s team cleared the first hurdle toward achieving that goal by showing that a smart bandage they developed could provide real-time data about chronic wounds in animal models, while also accelerating the healing process through the timely application of medication or electrical fields to stimulate tissue growth.

Now Gao and his colleagues from Caltech and the Keck School of Medicine of USC have cleared another hurdle by demonstrating that an improved version of their bandage, which they call iCares, was able to continually sample fluid, which the body sends to wound sites as part of the inflammatory response, in 20 human patients with chronic wounds. These wounds were not able to heal either because of diabetes or poor blood circulation; the researchers also studied additional patients before and after surgery.

The smart bandage, outfitted with three different microfluidic components-miniature modules that channel and otherwise control the flow of liquids-clears excess moisture from wounds while providing real-time data about biomarkers present.

“Our innovative microfluidics remove moisture from the wound, which helps with healing. They also make sure that samples analyzed by the bandage are fresh, not a mixture of old and new fluid. To get accurate measurements, we need to sample only the newest fluid at a wound site,” says Gao, who is also a Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator. “In this way, iCares can watch in real time for important biomarkers of inflammation and infection.”

Indeed, in a new paper in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Gao and his colleagues show that the smart bandage can detect molecules such as nitric oxide, an indicator of inflammation; and hydrogen peroxide, a biomarker of infection; potentially one to three days before patients experience symptoms.

In a further advance, the team has developed a machine-learning algorithm that can successfully classify the patients’ wounds and predict healing time with a level of accuracy comparable to that of an expert clinician.

The bandage is composed of a flexible, biocompatible polymer strip that can be 3D printed at low cost. It integrates nanoengineered biomarker sensor array, which is disposable for hygiene and single-use applications. The system also includes a reusable printed circuit board that handles signal processing and wireless data transmission to a user interface, such as a smartphone. The triad of microfluidic modules within iCares includes a membrane that sucks wound fluid from the surface of the wound, a bioinspired component that shuttles the fluid across the device onto a sensor array where it is analyzed, and a micropillar module that carries the sampled fluid away to the outside of the bandage.

Reference:

Wang C, Fan K, Shirzaei Sani E, Lasalde-Ramírez JA, Heng W, Min J, Solomon SA, Wang M, Li J, Han H, Kim G, Shin S, Seder A, Shih CD, Armstrong DG, Gao W. A microfluidic wearable device for wound exudate management and analysis in human chronic wounds. Sci Transl Med. 2025 Apr 23;17(795):eadt0882. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adt0882. 

A novel combination therapy offers better outcomes for patients with KRAS G12C metastatic colorectal cancer that have stopped responding to chemotherapy, according to a Phase 3 clinical trial by researchers at City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S., with its National Medical Center named top 5 in the nation for cancer care by U.S. News & World Report.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January approved the combination to treat patients with metastatic KRAS G12C mutated colorectal cancer that has progressed following chemotherapy. In a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, colorectal cancer patients who received a combination of two drugs, small molecule KRAS G12C inhibitor sotorasib combined with monoclonal antibody panitumumab, had significantly longer progression-free survival compared to those who received standard of care. Researchers also saw a strong trend toward improved overall survival* in the combination therapy group.

“This new treatment option prolongs the control of disease in this patient population and should be offered as the new standard of care,” said senior author Marwan Fakih, M.D., Judy & Bernard Briskin Distinguished Director of Clinical Research; professor in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research; co-director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program at City of Hope.

KRAS G12C is one of several genetic mutations that are known to activate the KRAS protein, which drives tumor growth and progression. KRAS mutations are present in up to 45% of colorectal cancer cases. Of these, fewer than 10% involve the KRAS G12C mutation.

Sotorasib targets the KRAS G12C protein specifically and is the first KRAS G12C inhibitor to be FDA-approved for clinical use. It works by binding to the mutated KRAS G12C protein, blocking its activation and inhibiting cancer cell growth.

Panitumumab is a monoclonal antibody drug used to treat colorectal cancer. It works by blocking a protein called epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR), which play an important role in cell growth and division. EGFR is over-expressed in several cancers, including colorectal cancer.

The new study, conducted with support from Amgen Inc., builds on previous research by Dr. Fakih’s team that found sotorasib could be made more effective when combined with panitumumab.

City of Hope is a national leader in working collaboratively with biopharmaceutical companies to usher innovative cancer therapies to patients, especially to people diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

The trial, called CodeBreaK 300, is the first to compare the sotorasib/panitumumab combination head-to-head against the standard of care in this patient population. All patients involved in the trial had KRAS G12C mutated colorectal cancer that progressed despite previous treatments with oxaliplatin, fluoropyrimidine and irinotecan — standard first- and second-line chemotherapy drugs.

For the study, 160 patients were randomized into three groups. One group received a 960 milligram (mg) dose of sotorasib with panitumumab; a second group received a lower dose of 240 mg sotorasib with panitumumab; and a third group received either a trifluridine/tipiracil combination or regorafenib, the current standard of care drugs.

“We confirmed that the higher dose of sotorasib was associated with higher response rates and longer time to progression compared to the control arm. The higher dose arm also appeared to have more favorable outcomes than the lower dose sotorasib arm,” Dr. Fakih said.

More than 30% of patients in the high dose sotorasib group achieved an objective response, which researchers defined as shrinking tumor volume by more than half. Only 1.9% of patients in the standard –of care group achieved the same result.

Notably, even though the trial was not designed to measure overall survival due to its small size, results suggested a benefit. Researchers noted that overall survival in the high dose sotorasib group was prolonged by 30% compared to standard of care.

“The exciting response rates seen with this combination provide a strong rationale to combining sotorasib plus panitumumab plus chemotherapy in the earlier lines of therapy of this disease,” Dr. Fakih said.

The most common adverse reactions were diarrhea, musculoskeletal pain, nausea, fatigue, hepatotoxicity and cough. Follow-up studies are underway investigating this combination as a first-line treatment option for KRAS G12C metastatic colorectal cancer, he added.

Reference:

Filippo Pietrantonio et al. Overall Survival Analysis of the Phase III CodeBreaK 300 Study of Sotorasib Plus Panitumumab Versus Investigator’s Choice in Chemorefractory KRAS G12C Colorectal Cancer. JCO 0, JCO-24-02026 DOI:10.1200/JCO-24-02026.

A new study published in the International Journal of Urology showed that patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) undergoing radical cystectomy worked better with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, as evidenced by prolonged progression-free survival and cancer-specific survival when compared to those who did not receive chemotherapy.

Microscopic dissemination to the lymph nodes is discovered in 20 to 25 out of 100 MIBC patients who have had radical cystectomy, or bladder removal surgery. Therefore, this is probably the situation for patients with MIBC who get extreme radiation therapy. Therefore, treatment choices for patients with MIBC focus on both the bladder cancer and any potential undetected lymph node metastasis.

Before radical radiation or surgery, neoadjuvant chemotherapy is administered. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is thought to work by eliminating micro-metastatic illness that has not yet been identified. This study sought to assess the effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer in actual clinical practice in Japan due to ambiguous evidence of improved survival.

To choose patients with a diagnosis of pure urothelial carcinoma, this study first took patients who had open radical cystectomies at Kanazawa University Hospital between July 2000 and May 2021 out of the medical records. Based on whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy was administered or not, progression-free survival and cancer-specific survival were compared. We also looked at prognostic variables associated with survival specific to cancer.

A total of 91 of the 107 patients who had open radical cystectomies had pure urothelial cancer. The presence and absence of neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly affected both cancer-specific and progression-free survival (median cancer-specific survival: not reached vs. 66.6 months, p = 0.0017, and median progression-free survival: not reached vs. 21.4 months, p = 0.0167, respectively).

5 independent adverse prognostic variables were identified by multivariate analysis, which were, high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, high C-reactive protein level, pN+, ≥ pT2, and age > 70 years. The patients were split into 3 risk groups with notably differing cancer-specific survival rates based on the number of independent unfavorable prognostic markers.

Overall, in actual clinical practice, individuals with muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with open radical cystectomy had better prognoses after receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. High inflammatory markers, severe illness, and advanced age were risk factors for a poor outcome.

Source:

Naito, R., Izumi, K., Takimoto, A., Nakagawa, R., Kano, H., Makino, T., Iwamoto, H., Yaegashi, H., Kawaguchi, S., Shigehara, K., Nohara, T., & Mizokami, A. (2025). Does neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical cystectomy improve the survival of muscle-invasive bladder cancer in real-world clinical practice? International Journal of Urology: Official Journal of the Japanese Urological Association. https://doi.org/10.1111/iju.70064