Reviews on Recent Clinical Trials - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2010

There is overwhelming evidence that smoking cessation, regular physical activity, and combined dietary changes are beneficial in patients with coronary heart disease. Effect size estimates for these lifestyle goals vary between 20% and 35% of mortality rate reductions. Despite the evidence, achieving healthy lifestyles remains the most difficult problem in secondary prevention. In this paper, I review the effects of lif Read More

Glioblastoma (GBM), a WHO grade IV malignant glioma, is the most common and lethal adult primary brain tumor. Median survival rates range from 12-15 months. The current standard of care for GBM has evolved from resection followed by adjuvant radiotherapy to resection, concurrent adjuvant chemotherapy (temozolomide) and radiation, and additional adjuvant chemotherapy. The expression of specific molecular bio Read More

Renal artery stenosis is the most common cause of secondary hypertension after exclusion of renal parenchymal disease and/or hypertensive nephrosclerosis. Atherosclerotic processes comprise the major contributors to this condition and account for 90% of the disease burden. Usually, the disease comes to light when there has been substantial morbidity resulting from several years of uncontrolled blood pressures and r Read More

Obstructive sleep apnea-hypoapnea syndrome (OSA) is a disorder that results in repetitive occlusion of the airway and hypoxemia during sleep. Epidemiologic studies have associated this disorder with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Systemic hypertension is prevalent among patients with OSA and it has been recognized as a common identifiable cause of hypertension. Nasal continuous positive airway Read More

Advanced pancreatic cancer is usually treated with first-line gemcitabine (GEM) (alone or in combination). More recently, GEM has become an established part of an adjuvant therapy based on two recently-reported randomized trials. There remains unresolved the problem of second-line therapy in patients relapsed during or after adjuvant or firstline GEM-based treatment. As of today, platinum analogues in combination Read More

Therapies that are believed to target the underlying mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease have now reached human clinical trials, with the number of agents in late stage development having increased dramatically in recent years. Primary targets include beta-amyloid, whose presence and accumulation in the brain is thought to contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease, and tau protein which, when hyperphosph Read More

Objective The consequences of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in youths are likely to be devastating for both the patient and his/her family. Thus, this review analyzes systematically the effectiveness of antidepressant drugs (ADDs) in managing such patients. Data Sources Medical literature reporting primary data on use of ADDs in children and adolescents was identified through searches (1966-January 2010) of MEDLINE/Pu Read More