Publications by authors named "Waxman A"

Introduction: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Sotatercept is a first-in-class activin signalling inhibitor that acts to restore the balance between the growth-promoting and growth-inhibiting signalling pathways.

Methods: This post-hoc, exploratory, pooled analysis combines data from the double-blind placebo periods of the phase 2 PULSAR (NCT03496207) and phase 3 STELLAR (NCT04576988) studies.

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Vascular inflammation regulates endothelial pathophenotypes, particularly in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Dysregulated lysosomal activity and cholesterol metabolism activate pathogenic inflammation, but their relevance to PAH is unclear. Nuclear receptor coactivator 7 () deficiency in endothelium produced an oxysterol and bile acid signature through lysosomal dysregulation, promoting endothelial pathophenotypes.

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Pulmonary vascular disease (PVD), and in particular, pulmonary hypertension (PH), is a highly specialized area of medicine comprised of complex diagnostics, classification systems, risk assessment tools, and therapeutics, the correct application of which has been shown to impact patient outcomes. The PVD scientific and patient community recognizes the importance of standardization of care patterns and has thus implemented a clinical accreditation process for PH care centers across the United States. However, a similar standardization system is lacking in PVD sub-specialty provider training.

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Background: This analysis examined the effects of the activin signaling inhibitor, sotatercept, in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) subgroups stratified by baseline cardiac index (CI).

Methods: Pooled data from PULSAR (N = 106; NCT03496207) and STELLAR (N = 323; NCT04576988) were analyzed using 2 different CI thresholds, <2.0 and ≥2.

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Introduction: Despite shared features with pulmonary arterial hypertension, acute vasoreactivity in pulmonary hypertension with interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD) is not well characterised, including its potential ability to predict therapeutic outcomes. We sought to determine whether acute vasoreactivity in PH-ILD to oxygen (O) and inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) predicts inhaled treprostinil (iTre) outcomes.

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective cohort analysis, we identified treatment-naive PH-ILD patients with vasoreactivity testing using O and O+iNO.

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Article Synopsis
  • Teclistamab demonstrated significant effectiveness in treating eight patients with relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis, achieving at least a very good partial response (VGPR) for all.
  • All patients experienced normalization of free light chains, and a majority achieved undetectable levels, indicating promising hematologic responses.
  • Side effects were mostly low-grade, with 75% experiencing mild cytokine release syndrome, and no severe complications like ICANS were reported, suggesting good tolerance of the treatment.
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With a prolonging duration of survivorship, patients with multiple myeloma (MM) who receive high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-HCT) have an increased risk of secondary malignancy, most concerning acute leukemia. We retrospectively reviewed the records of all patients with MM who underwent auto-HCT between January 1, 2010, and January 1, 2023, who later developed therapy-related acute leukemia (t-AL). Of 1770 patients with MM who underwent auto-HCT, 18 (1.

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The PERFECT study, a randomized, controlled, double-blind study of inhaled treprostinil in patients with COPD and associated pulmonary hypertension (PH-COPD) was a negative trial that was terminated early. The reason(s) for the negative outcome remains uncertain. A post hoc analysis of data from the PERFECT study was undertaken to identify adverse responders and possibly potential responders.

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Article Synopsis
  • Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare, progressive disease that remains difficult to treat despite advances in therapy and there is a critical need for new treatment options.
  • Sotatercept is a new type of treatment that may help PAH by inhibiting activin signaling, though its exact mechanism isn't fully understood.
  • The article reviews current PAH therapies, the role of TGF-β signaling in PAH development, ongoing clinical trials for sotatercept, and the potential of another protein, KER-012, to help combat the disease’s effects.
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Quantitative interstitial abnormalities (QIAs) are a computed tomography (CT) measure of early parenchymal lung disease associated with worse clinical outcomes, including exercise capacity and symptoms. The presence of pulmonary vasculopathy in QIAs and its role in the QIA-outcome relationship is unknown. To quantify radiographic pulmonary vasculopathy in QIAs and determine whether this vasculopathy mediates the QIA-outcome relationship.

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Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) accompanying COPD (PH-COPD) is associated with worse outcomes than COPD alone. There are currently no approved therapies to treat PH-COPD. The PERFECT study (ClinicalTrials.

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Multiple myeloma is a largely incurable and life-threatening malignancy of antibody-secreting plasma cells. An effective and widely available animal model that recapitulates human myeloma and related plasma cell disorders is lacking. We show that busulfan-conditioned human IL-6-transgenic (hIL-6-transgenic) NSG (NSG+hIL6) mice reliably support the engraftment of malignant and premalignant human plasma cells, including from patients diagnosed with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, pre- and postrelapse myeloma, plasma cell leukemia, and amyloid light chain amyloidosis.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study evaluated the effects of sotatercept on exercise tolerance, capacity, and right ventricular function in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension through the SPECTRA clinical trial.
  • - Results showed that out of 21 participants, there was a significant increase in peak oxygen uptake after 24 weeks of treatment, along with improvements in exercise hemodynamics and walking distance.
  • - The findings suggest that sotatercept could be a promising new treatment option for pulmonary arterial hypertension, potentially reversing heart function decline.
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Background: Inhaled treprostinil (iTre) is the only treatment approved for pulmonary hypertension due to interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD) to improve exercise capacity. This post hoc analysis evaluated clinical worsening and PH-ILD exacerbations from the 16-week INCREASE study and change in 6-minute walking distance (6MWD) in the INCREASE open-label extension (OLE) in patients with less severe haemodynamics.

Methods: Patients were stratified by baseline pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) of <4 Wood units (WU) versus ≥4 WU and <5 WU versus ≥5 WU.

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Multiple myeloma is a largely incurable and life-threatening malignancy of antibody-secreting plasma cells. An effective and widely available animal model that recapitulates human myeloma and related plasma cell disorders is lacking. We show that busulfan-conditioned hIL-6 transgenic NSG mice (NSG+hIL6) reliably support the engraftment of malignant and pre-malignant human plasma cells including from patients diagnosed with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, pre- and post-relapse myeloma, plasma cell leukemia, and AL amyloidosis.

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Article Synopsis
  • A T cell lymphoma (TCL) case was reported occurring three months after a patient received anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy for non-Hodgkin B cell lymphoma, diagnosed through surgery for lung cancer.
  • The TCL showed a CD8 cytotoxic profile and a JAK3 variant, and it was identified at low levels prior to CAR T infusion and also in the lung cancer samples.
  • An analysis of 449 patients treated with CAR T therapy revealed that 3.6% developed a secondary primary malignancy, with a low overall risk of TCL after such treatment.
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Objective: A post-hoc analysis of the INCREASE trial and its open-label extension (OLE) was performed to evaluate whether inhaled treprostinil has a long-term survival benefit in patients with pulmonary hypertension associated with interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD).

Methods: Two different models of survival were employed; the inverse probability of censoring weighting (IPCW) and the rank-preserving structural failure time (RPSFT) models both allow construction of a pseudo-placebo group, thereby allowing for long-term survival evaluation of patients with PH-ILD receiving inhaled treprostinil. Time-varying stabilised weights were calculated by fitting Cox proportional hazards models based on the baseline and time-varying prognostic factors to generate weighted Cox regression models with associated adjusted HRs.

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The mean pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (mPAWP) is the critical hemodynamic factor differentiating group 1 pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) from group 2 pulmonary hypertension associated with left heart disease. Despite the discrepancy between the mPAWP upper physiologic normal and current PAH definitions, the implications of the initial mPAWP for PAH clinical trajectory are poorly understood. To model longitudinal mPAWP trajectories in PAH over 10 years and examine the clinical and hemodynamic factors associated with trajectory membership.

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Article Synopsis
  • The STELLAR trial tested the drug sotatercept, showing it improved walking distance and other health measures in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
  • Data from right heart catheterization and echocardiography were analyzed over 24 weeks to assess the drug's effects on heart and lung parameters.
  • Results indicated significant reductions in pulmonary artery pressure and resistance, along with improvements in right heart function, indicating sotatercept's potential effectiveness for PAH patients.
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What Is This Summary About?: Here, we summarize the results from the INCREASE study, originally published in the . The INCREASE study looked at how well a medication called inhaled treprostinil works and how safe it is, compared to placebo (a fake medication), in adults who have pulmonary hypertension associated with interstitial lung disease or PH-ILD.

What Were The Results?: A total of 326 participants took part in the study.

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