Evaluating prevalence and consequence of residual disease in individuals with psoriasis receiving apremilast treatment: results from a US patient survey.

This noninterventional, cross-sectional survey estimated the prevalence and consequences of residual disease in apremilast-treated US adults with moderate to severe psoriasis. Residual disease was defined as experiencing moderate, severe, or very severe psoriasis over the past week or having ≥3% body surface area affected, despite treatment. Factors associated with residual disease and its effects on flare-ups, humanistic burden, and health care resource utilization (HCRU) were evaluated.

Health disparities in psoriasis: geographic barriers to access in the United States.

Purpose: Providers who treat patients with psoriasis are unevenly distributed across the United States, with more in urban than rural areas. This retrospective claims analysis characterized disparities in access to care for US patients with psoriasis using data from the STATinMED database.

Materials And Methods: Patients (≥18 years) had ≥1 claim with a psoriasis diagnosis and ≥1 claim for advanced psoriasis therapy (apremilast or biologics) between January 2015 and December 2019.

Evaluating Treatment Choice in Patients with Moderate to Severe Psoriasis in the United States: Results from a US Patient Survey.

Introduction: While multiple treatments are available for moderate to severe psoriasis, patient preferences are rarely systematically studied. This study aims to identify factors associated with choice of a new once-daily oral psoriasis treatment, elicit patient views on treatment characteristics, and rank treatment characteristics by importance.

Methods: This noninterventional, cross-sectional survey study, conducted from December 2021 to June 2022, recruited US adults with moderate to severe psoriasis.

Geographic variation in clinical outcomes and anticoagulation among medicare beneficiaries with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

Oral anticoagulants (OACs) have been used to prevent stroke/systemic embolism (SE) among patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). To evaluate baseline clinical characteristics, incidence rates of stroke/SE and hospitalization for bleeding, and OAC use among elderly patients with NVAF in the US by geographic region. Patients with NVAF were selected from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services claims database (01JAN2013-31DEC2016).

Early Discontinuation of Apremilast in Patients with Psoriasis and Gastrointestinal Comorbidities: Rates and Associated Risk Factors.

Introduction: Apremilast, the first oral targeted treatment for moderate to severe psoriasis, is associated with diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, which have contributed to treatment discontinuation. This study describes early apremilast discontinuation rates in patients with psoriasis, including a cohort with gastrointestinal (GI) comorbidities, and associated characteristics.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study used IBM (now Merative™) MarketScan commercial and Medicare claims data to identify adults with psoriasis who filled their first apremilast prescription between September 1, 2014 and March 31, 2020.

Treatment patterns and healthcare costs among patients with psoriasis initiating apremilast or biologics: a retrospective claims database cohort analysis.

Objective: This study aimed to compare treatment patterns and healthcare costs for patients with psoriasis who initiate apremilast, tumor necrosis factor inhibitor, or interleukin inhibitor.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study used Optum Clinformatics Data Mart to identify propensity score-matched patients initiating apremilast, tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, or interleukin inhibitors, with 12-month baseline and 24-month follow-up data. Switch, discontinuation, persistence, healthcare resource utilization, and total healthcare costs were assessed.

Economic Burden of Comorbidities in Patients with Psoriasis in the USA.

Introduction: This study assessed the comorbidity burden, healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), and costs associated with patients with moderate to severe psoriasis (PsO) compared with a matched cohort of the general population without PsO in the USA.

Methods: Comorbidity-related HCRU (incidence rate ratios [IRRs]) and direct medical cost burden (per patient per month [PPPM] 2020 USD) in patients with moderate to severe PsO in the USA, previously apremilast- and biologic-naive, but currently treated, versus the general population were assessed through a retrospective cohort study using IBM (now Merative) MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Claims data (1 January 2006 to 31 December 2019). Comorbidities included cardiovascular, mental health, pulmonary, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, peripheral vascular, liver, obesity, and other autoimmune disorders.

Efficacy and safety of oxaliplatin and gemcitabine with bevacizumab in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Introduction: We conducted a multicenter phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of oxaliplatin and gemcitabine with bevacizumab in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: Patients with chemotherapy-naive, nonsquamous, stage IIIB or IV NSCLC received gemcitabine 1000 mg/m on days 1 and 8, oxaliplatin 130 mg/m on day 1, and bevacizumab 15 mg/kg on day 1 every 21 days for 4 cycles. Patients with stable disease or response received maintenance bevacizumab every 3 weeks until progression.

Randomized phase II trial of erlotinib or standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer and a performance status of 2.

Purpose: A multicenter randomized phase II trial to evaluate two treatment strategies in the first-line management of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a performance status (PS) of 2.

Patients And Methods: Patients were assigned to erlotinib 150 mg orally daily until progression or to carboplatin (area under the curve [AUC] 6) and paclitaxel (200 mg/m(2) day 1 every 3 weeks) for up to four cycles. Patients who experienced progression or did not tolerate or refused further chemotherapy were allowed to cross over to erlotinib.

A randomized phase II trial of two schedules of docetaxel in elderly or poor performance status patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: We conducted a multicenter randomized phase II trial to evaluate two schedules of single-agent docetaxel in the first-line treatment of elderly and performance status (PS) 2 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: Patients 70 years of age and older with a PS 0-1 or patients of any age and PS 2 were randomly assigned to docetaxel 75 mg/m2 on day 1 every 3 weeks or 30 mg/m2 on days 1, 8, and 15 every 28 days. The primary end point was frequency of grade 3/4 toxicities.

Phase II trial of weekly docetaxel in second-line therapy for nonsmall cell lung carcinoma.

Background: The authors conducted a Phase II study to evaluate the activity and toxicity of weekly docetaxel in second-line therapy for nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).

Methods: Patients with documented recurrent or refractory NSCLC, previously treated with no more than one chemotherapy regimen, were eligible if they had a performance status (PS) of 0-2, measurable or evaluable disease, and adequate organ function. Patients were treated with docetaxel 36 mg/m(2)/week for 6 consecutive weeks, administered intravenously with dexamethasone premedication.

Stage II and III-A non-small cell cancer of the lung: results of surgical resection at Fairfax Hospital.

Carcinoma of the lung is the single leading cause of death in patients with cancer and is responsible for over a quarter of all such deaths. Encouraging survival rates have been demonstrated following surgical resection of local (Stage I) disease. This paper details the results achieved with surgical resection of 100 patients with more advanced local--regional non-small cell carcinoma of the lung (Stages II and III-A).

Resection for esophageal carcinoma at a Virginia hospital 1981-1989.

Between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1989, 222 patients with carcinoma of the esophagus were seen at Fairfax Hospital. Fifty-eight (26.1%) underwent esophagogastrectomy.

Stage I non-small cell cancer of the lung results of surgical resection at Fairfax Hospital.

Between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1989, 2003 patients were evaluated at Fairfax Hospital with a diagnosis of carcinoma of the lung. Of these, 214 with Stage I non-small cell carcinoma underwent surgical resection. Operative (30-day) mortality was 1.

Inferior rectus recession for vertical tropia after cataract surgery.

Four patients with de novo onset of persistent vertical tropia ranging from 4 to 11 prism diopters (PD) after cataract surgery underwent inferior rectus recession. Deviations were stable and fuseable with prism preoperatively for 4 to 6 months. Three patients regained single binocular vision in all fields of gaze.

Dynamic and nonspecific dispersal of human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type-I integration in cultured lymphoma cells.

The progression of HTLV-I proviral integration over a 3-year period of in vitro culture was examined in two human lymphoma lines, Hut 102 and MJ. Using specific HTLV-I molecular clones and a Southern analysis at different cell passages, Hut 102 increased from 2 to 19 integrated proviral integrations while MJ increased to at least 25 different integrations by passage 43. During the progress of increased superinfection and novel integration in vitro some of the previous proviral integrations were lost from the cultures.

Transactivation induced by human T-lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV III) maps to a viral sequence encoding 58 amino acids and lacks tissue specificity.

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) retrovirus, HTLV-III/LAV, encodes a transacting factor which directly or indirectly stimulates the expression of genes linked to its LTR. To further dissect this phenomenon, we have cotransfected a biologically active molecular clone of HTLV-III and a recombinant plasmid containing an indicator gene, the bacterial gene for chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT), under the control of the HTLV-III LTR. Amplified CAT activity was detected in both lymphoid cells and fibroblasts from a number of species in the presence of the proviral DNA.

Gene for T-cell growth factor: location on human chromosome 4q and feline chromosome B1.

T-cell growth factor (TCGF) or interleukin-2 (IL-2), an immunoregulatory lymphokine, is produced by lectin- or antigen-activated mature T lymphocytes and in a constitutive manner by certain T-cell lymphoma cell lines. By means of a molecular clone of human TCGF and DNA extracted from a panel of somatic cell hybrids (rodent cells X normal human lymphocytes), the TCGF structural gene was identified on human chromosome 4. In situ hybridization of the TCGF clone to human chromosomes resulted in significant labeling of the midportion of the long arm of chromosome 4, indicating that the TCGF gene was located at band q26-28.

The control of chemotherapy-induced emesis.

Nausea and vomiting are frequent and serious toxicities of cancer chemotherapy that have been largely ignored in the past. Recently there has been renewed interest in this significant problem, with important advances in understanding the physiology of vomiting and a burgeoning number of clinical trials that use newer classes of antiemetics. At present phenothiazines are the only class of antiemetics that have shown both efficacy and safety in large numbers of cancer patients, but they are inadequate against strongly emetic agents such as cisplatin.