Indications Renal cell carcinoma In July 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for use of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor bevacizumab (Avastin) in combination with interferon alfa for treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Approval was based on results from the BO17705 trial, which demonstrated a 5-month improvement i...

BACKGROUND Epoetin delta is an epoetin that, unlike existing agents, is produced in a human cell line. The present study investigated the efficacy and tolerability of intravenous (i.v.) epoetin delta compared with i.v. epoetin alfa. METHODS This was a 6-month, multicentre, randomized, double-blind trial in haemodialysis patients previously receiving epoetin alfa. Haematological parameters wer...

Taliglucerase alfa is an intravenous enzyme replacement therapy approved for treatment of type 1 Gaucher disease (GD), and is the first available plant cell-expressed recombinant therapeutic protein. Herein, we report long-term safety and efficacy results of taliglucerase alfa in treatment-naïve adult patients with GD. Patients were randomized to receive taliglucerase alfa 30 or 60 U/kg every o...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential value of circulating miRNA-122a and miRNA-221 in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS Serum samples were obtained from 85 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and 85 age-matched and sex-matched healthy volunteers. miRNAs were isolated from the serum samples, and alfa-fetoprotein levels were determined. Expressi...

1 Dodecanissou Street, Athens 12351, Greece. Abstract To assess the safety and possible efficacy of recombinant human interferon alfa-2b in preventing the development of chronic hepatitis, 24 adults (eight men, 16 women) with acute non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis were recruited to a pilot study. Half of the cases were parenterally transmitted and half were community acquired. Twelve patients rece...

Drotrecogin alfa (activated) (Xigris; Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN) significantly reduced mortality in severe sepsis in the PROWESS trial. We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of drotrecogin alfa (activated) as an adjunct to standard therapy from the German healthcare payer's perspective with respect to patients with 1) severe sepsis and 2) severe sepsis and multiple organ failure the ...

BACKGROUND Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Although the PROWESS trial demonstrated a mortality benefit, subsequent studies in different patient populations have not reproduced the effect. As a result, concerns have been expressed about the clinical effectiveness of drotrecogin alfa (activated). Therefore the aim of this audit was to review the clinical impact of drotrecogin alfa (activated) when used outside cli...

Multicenter randomized trials have shown that once-weekly pegylated interferon (peginterferon) alfa-2a is more efficacious than conventional interferon alfa-2a (IFN) in patients with chronic hepatitis C. We performed a meta-analysis of 1,013 previously untreated patients (from 3 randomized trials) with pretreatment and post-treatment liver biopsies to assess the differences between peginterfero...

BACKGROUND Cerebral venous thrombosis is a rare complication of polycythemia. To our knowledge, epoetin alfa-induced polycythemia has not previously been reported in association with cerebral venous thrombosis. CASE DESCRIPTION A 37-year-old patient who was receiving peritoneal dialysis and epoetin alfa (Epogen) therapy presented with a several-day history of worsening headache, and a neuroim...