Effect of angiotensin system inhibitors on survival in newly diagnosed glioma patients and recurrent glioblastoma patients receiving chemotherapy and/or bevacizumab.

Given prior studies that suggest the use of angiotensin system inhibitors (ASIs) is associated with prolonged overall survival (OS) in glioblastoma (GBM) patients, we evaluated the effect of ASIs in glioma patients receiving chemotherapy and/or bevacizumab (BEV). Using retrospective IRB-approved electronic chart review of newly diagnosed WHO grade 2-4 glioma patients from the Kaiser Permanente Tumor Registry of Northern California, we evaluated the impact of ASIs on OS by Cox proportional hazard model analysis for subgroups who received cytotoxic therapy, cytotoxic therapy with BEV, or BEV alone, as well as those with recurrent GBM (rGBM). Of the 1186 glioma patients who received chemotherapy ASI exposure improved OS (HR 0.

Impact of bevacizumab administered dose on overall survival of patients with progressive glioblastoma.

Bevacizumab (BEV, Avastin(®)) produces durable objective radiological responses of 20-26 %, median response durations of 16-18 weeks, and median overall survival (mOS) of 31-40 weeks. While the use of BEV is well-established, the lack of dose-response studies in glioblastoma (GBM) patients raises the question whether current dosing practice is optimal. As a result of differing approaches to BEV dosing that ranged from the FDA approved package insert dose of 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks to 7.

Intrathecal ziconotide for refractory chronic pain.

Objective: To describe the pharmacology, efficacy, and safety of ziconotide for treatment of severe chronic pain in patients who are candidates for intrathecal therapy.

Data Sources: A PubMed/MEDLINE search (1966-June 2006) was conducted using the terms ziconotide, Prialt, and SNX-111. Manufacturer-provided data, the Food and Drug Administration medical review of ziconotide, and abstracts presented at American Pain Society meetings (2001-2006) were also reviewed.

Drug-related emergency department visits in an elderly veteran population.

Background: Given that adverse drug events result in extensive costs and healthcare resource utilization, the goal is to better understand drug-related emergency department (ED) visits so that programs can be implemented to improve the quality of health care.

Objective: To (1) determine the incidence of drug-related ED visits at a large, tertiary care, Veterans Affairs hospital; (2) identify causes of these drug-related ED visits; (3) determine patient outcomes, healthcare resource utilization, and costs associated with these visits; and (4) determine the proportion of adverse drug reaction (ADR)-related ED visits that were spontaneously reported to the hospital's ADR reporting program.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective electronic chart review of all patients who visited the ED during the second week of each month in 2003.