PARK CITY, Utah — For individuals with amputations, participating in sports and daily activities can be challenging with a socket prosthesis. However, for some patients, osseointegration may be a promising option.
“For the right patients at the right time, osseointegration is a real game changer,” Jason W. Stoneback, MD, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, told Healio.
According to Stoneback, osseointegration involves implantation of a metal implant into the residual limb of an amputee, making the liners and sockets used with a traditional prosthesis unnecessary.
In his

The FDA has approved a first-in-class targeted therapy for adults with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
Daraxonrasib (Rasonque, Revolution Medicines), an RAS inhibitor, received approval for patients who previously received at least one prior line of systemic therapy and are not candidates for multiagent systemic therapy.
The FDA said in a press release that it based its decision on the randomized, phase 3 RASolute 302 trial, which showed a near-doubling of OS with daraxonrasib compared with standard chemotherapy.
“We use a lot of hyperbole in oncology,” Suneel Kamath, MD, a

Contamination caused by chemicals used in dry cleaning may increase risk for developing Parkinson’s disease in older adults who live near dry cleaners, according to research published in npj Parkinson’s Disease.
Living within 500 feet of a dry cleaner was associated with 14% greater odds of developing PD when compared with living 4 to 5 miles away, wrote Brad A. Racette, MD, chairman of neurology of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, and colleagues.
“This study adds to growing evidence that environmental exposures may play an important role in Parkinson’s disease,” Racette said in a

CMS recently issued its proposed 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
The proposed schedule includes a 0.75% increase to the qualifying alternative payment model (APM) conversion factor and a 0.25% increase to the nonqualifying APM conversion factor.
But because the Working Families Tax Cut Act provided a 1-year conversion factor increase of 2.5% for the 2026 PFS — which does not apply to the 2027 PFS — current law requires a 2.5% decrease in Medicare payments compared with 2026. Therefore, CMS said the proposed qualifying APM conversion factor of $33.17 for 2027 is a projected reduction of

An eye drop designed to treat two pathways of dry eye disease significantly reduced a key sign of disease at 15 days.
The drop combines the active ingredients from two Bausch + Lomb dry eye drops: Xiidra (lifitegrast ophthalmic solution 5%) and Miebo (perfluorohexyloctane ophthalmic solution).
In a phase 2 study, patients using the combination drop had significantly lower total corneal fluorescein staining at day 15 than patients using lifitegrast only.
The drop will be studied further in a phase 3 trial, Bausch + Lomb announced during a research and development call.
The FDA approved Xiidra, an

In this video interview, Sunir J. Garg, MD, FACS, FASRS, discussed 2-year results of the phase 2 LUNA study on ixoberogene soroparvovec, an intravitreal gene therapy from Adverum Biotechnologies for wet age-related macular degeneration.
The results were presented at the American Society of Retina Specialists annual meeting.
“Everybody received one injection, and it reduced the need for supplemental treatment by 90% over 2 years while maintaining stable visual acuity as well as stable, and really quite good, retinal anatomy,” Garg, chief of the retina service at Wills Eye Hospital and professor

Sunir J. Garg, MD, FACS, FASRS, discussed findings from a proof-of-concept clinical trial comparing OLN324, a bispecific antibody targeting VEGF and Ang-2, with faricimab in patients with diabetic macular edema in this video with Healio.
The results were presented at the American Society of Retina Specialists annual meeting.
OLN324 (Ollin Biosciences) demonstrated rapid drying of the macula that was “at least comparable, if not better,” than that seen with Vabysmo (faricimab, Genentech), according to Garg, chief of the retina service at Wills Eye Hospital and professor of ophthalmology at

The Infectious Diseases Society of America has updated its guidance on the treatment of antimicrobial-resistant gram-negative infections in the United States.
The new guidance refreshes updates made in 2024 and focuses on preferred vs. alternative treatment strategies, as well as transitioning to oral therapy and treatment durations.
For insight into the guidance, we spoke with Pranita D. Tamma, MD, MHS, attending physician at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and one of the six infectious diseases specialists who authored the updated guidance.
Healio:

Brepocitinib improved skin-specific symptoms of dermatomyositis, according to an analysis of the phase 3 VALOR trial published in JAMA Dermatology.
These findings, which included rapid and durable reductions in itch and skin disease activity, come after the release of the primary efficacy and safety results in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting.
Cutaneous dermatomyositis is an autoimmune disease with no FDA-approved treatments, and therapies prescribed off-label are often ineffective, according to Victoria P. Werth, MD, MS,

In March 2020, as COVID-19 surged around the globe, Dolly Parton announced that she was making a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to support research into treatments for the new coronavirus.
The university later confirmed that the money was used to create the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund, which supported early-stage research that led to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Parton, the iconic country music superstar and actress who was renowned for her philanthropy, died Tuesday at the age of 80