Articles related to Internal Medicine

Based on the results of an open-label trial, selpercatinib (Retevmo) becomes the first targeted therapy to be granted accelerated approval by the FDA for use in patients with cancer who have certain tumors that have an alteration (mutation or fusion) in the RET gene.

This roundup of articles highlights the 14 vaccines doctors are targeting in the fight against COVID‑19, in addition to featuring one doctor’s claim that the virus was active in France in December 2019, almost a month earlier than previously believed.

According to a study featured in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, pre-surgery letrozole led to significant imaging and biomarker changes in postmenopausal patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in a phase 2 clinical trial.

This JAMA “Viewpoint” describes how to interpret two types of diagnostic tests commonly in use for SARS-CoV-2 infections—reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and IgM and IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)—and how the results may vary over time.

Hospitalized patients who had advanced COVID-19 with lung involvement and who received the antiviral agent remdesivir (Gilead Sciences) recovered faster than similar patients who received placebo, according to a preliminary data analysis from a US-led randomized, controlled trial.

Although still a lower projection from a month ago, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation (IHME) model increase is due to “many states experiencing flatter and thus longer epidemic peaks.” It also said that coronavirus deaths across the country are not falling “very quickly” after their estimated peak.