Trastuzumab combined with trimodality treatment does not improve outcomes for patients

Results of the NRG Oncology clinical trial RTOG 1010 indicated that the addition of the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab to neoadjuvant trimodality treatment did not improve disease-free survival (DFS) outcomes for patient with HER2 overexpressing local and locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma. These results were recently, orally presented during the virtual Annual Meeting of the American Society…

When COVID-19 meets flu season

CHICAGO — As if the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t scary enough, the flu season is not far away. How severe will the flu season be as it converges with the COVID-19 outbreak? What can we do to prepare? Dr. Benjamin Singer, a Northwestern Medicine pulmonologist who treats COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit, outlines the…

SARS-CoV-2 possibly emerged from shuffling and selection of viral genes across different species

A combination of genetic shuffling and evolutionary selection of near-identical genetic sequences among specific bat and pangolin coronaviruses may have led to the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and its introduction into humans, a new study suggests. The results also showed that the virus’ entire receptor binding motif (RBM), a component that plays a key role in…

Next frontier in bacterial engineering

From bacteria-made insulin that obviates the use of animal pancreases to a better understanding of infectious diseases and improved treatments, genetic engineering of bacteria has redefined modern medicine. Yet, serious limitations remain that hamper| progress in numerous other areas. A decades-old bacterial engineering technique called recombineering (recombination-mediated genetic engineering) allows scientists to scarlessly swap pieces…

Trastuzumab achieves slight reduction in recurrence for women with HER2-positive DCIS

The addition of the monoclonal antibody therapy Trastuzumab to radiotherapy did not reach the protocol objective of a 36% reduction in the ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence rate for women with HER2-positive ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) on the NRG Oncology clinical trial NSABP B-43. The trial did find a statistically non-significant, modest (19%) reduction in…