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For breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), long-term oncologic outcomes for immediate breast reconstruction with nipple- or skin-sparing mastectomy were comparable to total mastectomy without reconstruction, a case-control study from Korea found. In a propensity score-matched analysis involving nearly 650 patients, no significant differences were seen at a median 5.5 years follow-up between the

It might be time to put the gloves on again. And turn up the thermostat. That is especially good advice for residents of states including Texas, California and Wisconsin, where recorded cases of coronavirus have risen to more than 18,000 in the past seven days. The reason? New data suggests that the hotter a surface

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. As COVID-19 numberssoared across the country this spring, tribal nations began closing their reservation boundaries to non-residents. The Cheyenne River Sioux and Oglala Sioux erected checkpoints on roads entering their reservations in order to protect their citizens, even as the state

More than 50% of older adults hospitalized with heart failure are sent home with a pharmacy’s worth of medications that not only may be unnecessary, but may cause adverse interactions, according to a new study. Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center found that heart failure patients 65 years and older are

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. This story was updated Oct. 13, at 4:05 p.m. Oct. 13, 2020 — Johnson & Johnson paused dosing and enrollment in all of its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials due to an unexplained illness in a study participant, the company announced Monday. Later in

Note that some links may require registration or subscription. Johnson & Johnson paused the phase III trial of its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate due to an “unexplained illness” in one of the participants. From March to August, the U.S. recorded 20% more deaths than expected, with COVID-19 being the documented reason in two-thirds of cases. (JAMA)

Shortly after President Trump touted Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ experimental antibody cocktail treatment for COVID-19 as a “cure,” both Regeneron and Eli Lilly and Company applied to the U.S. government to open their antibody treatments to the public. The two companies’ drugs work similarly. Neither company has finished its clinical trials yet, but both argue that the

Switching patients with HIV from a protease inhibitor–based antiretroviral therapy regimen to an integrase inhibitor–based regimen can be performed safely, with maintenance of high levels of virologic suppression and improvements in both bone mineral density and renal function biomarkers, data from a randomized trial indicate. Among 212 women with successful HIV virologic suppression following 48

MARLENE EDITED Now that Anthony Fauci, MD, has declared the Sept. 26 Rose Garden introduction of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, a COVID-19 super-spreader event, the question is how many of the 200 guests and White House staff – most of whom did not wear a mask or social distance – have been infected.

A single dose of MK-8507, an investigational non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), reduced HIV-1 viral loads for at least 1 week with efficacy comparable to that of other NNRTIs dosed daily for 7 days, investigators reported. If it should receive regulatory approval, the drug’s antiviral potency at doses as low as 40 mg and its

Note that some links may require registration or subscription. White House physician Sean Conley, DO, said on Saturday that President Trump is “no longer considered a transmission risk to others, and the president declared himself “immune” as he returns to in-person campaigning. (Politico ) “The data speak for themselves — we had a super-spreader event

Another day, another clinical trial to try to conquer COVID-19. And this one covers a lot of ground. According to the National Institutes of Health, a phase 3 clinical trial looking at combining the antiviral remdesivir with anti-coronavirus hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin will take place in 59 sites across 18 countries, including the United States. Remdisivir

In patients with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS), increased abundance of Blautia stercoris and its variants in the gut is associated with an increased risk of relapse.No broad differences in gut bacterial composition, however, are associated with risk of relapse, according to the investigators. The findings were presented at the Joint European Committee for Treatment and

Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) argued, civilly, about a number of healthcare issues during Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debate at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The two were seated 12 feet apart and behind plexiglass partitions, a reminder of the ongoing pandemic. But viewers didn’t need that reminder, as

President Donald Trump is “no longer considered a transmission risk to others” for the coronavirus, according to a memo from his doctor released on Saturday night. Cmdr. Sean Conley, DO, the White House doctor who provided updates on Trump’s health at Walter Reed National Medical Center last weekend, has issued several memos during the week.

Research published late this summer suggests that “newborn–physician racial concordance is associated with a significant improvement in mortality for Black infants,” i.e., when they received care from Black physicians. Lead author Brad N. Greenwood, PhD, an associate professor at George Mason University School of Business, took time to answer questions about this research. Did you

There may be good news for people hoping to take to the skies before the holidays. The risk of COVID-19 transmission during air travel is  less than you might think. A new report published in JAMA found that “[T]he risk of contracting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during air travel is lower than from an office building,

The novel anti-PCSK9 compound LIB003 substantially reduces low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels over 52 weeks in patients already taking maximally tolerated statins, results of an open-label trial extension show. The research was presented on October 5 at the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) 2020 Virtual Congress, held online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. LIB003,

The much-anticipated, at-home saliva test for COVID-19 is now more the stuff of fiction than of reality. Hopes of rolling out an at-home, antigen-based test to help curb the spread of coronavirus are dwindling, as the creation of an effective test has yet to happen, according to The New York Times.  While it is still possible

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Every day, another 20,000 Americans between 20 and 60 years of age could be classified as living with a “preexisting condition” because of COVID-19, researchers from the Commonwealth Fund report. Overall, the pandemic could cause almost 3.5 million Americans to be added

“This year, as the coronavirus outbreak has made its way from major cities to rural America, threats to the rural health care infrastructure have only increased,” Will Stone writes. In fact, 25% of rural households who responded to a recent poll said they could not access care for a serious condition ~ Getting Health Care

The world is desperate for a vaccine against the coronavirus. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, at least 35 vaccines have gone to clinical trial worldwide, and 11 of them are in the final stage before approval.  Yet we still don’t have a vaccine. That is not unusual. It takes a long time for

Vericiguat (Merck/Bayer), among the latest drugs to gain cred in heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), significantly benefits patients who are highly adherent to standard-of-care (SOC) HF meds, suggests a new VICTORIA trial analysis. The novel agent seemed to improve the primary endpoint on top of the entire slate of SOC agents, individually

With COVID-19 all over the news, it’s easy to forget about other health issues that we should continue to be concerned with. Take the Zika virus, for example. Zika is a virus spread by mosquitoes, although it can be spread through sexual activity as well. It was first found in the United States in July

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. A final report from the multinational placebo-controlled ACTT-1 trial confirms that remdesivir is effective and well tolerated for shortening the time to recovery from COVID-19 infection. In May 2020, remdesivir received Food and Drug Administration approval for emergency treatment of severe

Note that some links may require registration or subscription. Saying he feels “perfect,” President Trump may resume campaign rallies on Saturday, even though he is only halfway through a 14-day quarantine for COVID-19. (AP News) Yet in a Fox News telephone interview with Sean Hannity, the president did not appear symptom-free. (Business Insider) Senate Majority

If you’ve pleaded with a loved one — with no success — to get to a hospital after a fall,  you both should know about the “golden hour.” The “golden hour” is that first hour right after a trauma – invariably prehospital — when the patient needs treatment before death or disability seems imminent. Doctors have

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Most people with type 1 diabetes do not appear to be at increased risk for hospitalization or death from COVID-19 compared to the general population, new research suggests. Two retrospective studies of type 1 diabetes and COVID-19 were published in the