Physicians only slightly more likely to die at home, in hospice

Physicians in the U.S. are only marginally more likely to die at home or in hospice than other Americans, according to study results.
“There have been considerable public health efforts aimed at reducing intensive care at the end of life,” lead author Vishal R. Patel, MD, MPH, resident physician at Mass General Brigham, told Healio. “Physicians play a key role in that by educating patients and their family members about how this can contribute to undesirable outcomes. This serves as a reminder that physicians may have room to improve when it comes to aligning care with patient goals at the end

Ethosuximide falls short of overall benefit in IBS-related pain

Ethosuximide, a T-type calcium channel blocker, demonstrated no significant benefit as a treatment for patients with irritable bowel syndrome-related abdominal pain, according to results of a proof-of-concept clinical trial.
The findings support the need for more selective, well-tolerated T-type calcium channel modulators, researchers concluded.
“The management of chronic pain is a real challenge today due to the complexity of the pathophysiology of pain and the lack of truly effective analgesic treatments,” Nicolas Kerckhove, PhD, a researcher and pharmacologist at University Hospital of

Lifespan-extending treatments increase variation in age at time of death

A key goal in aging research is not just to extend life, but to ensure more people live longer and healthier lives with less variation in age at death, a concept known as "squaring the survival curve." Using a recent meta-analysis, Dr. Tahlia Fulton and Associate Professor Alistair Senior from the University of Sydney School of Life and Environmental Sciences have re-examined how dietary restriction and two related drugs, rapamycin and metformin, affect variation in age at death in vertebrates.

Adolescent cannabis use may follow the same pattern as alcohol use

A new study published in the journal Addiction shows that cannabis use among Swedish adolescents appears to follow the same population-level pattern previously observed for alcohol. The findings suggest that changes in average cannabis use among young people are reflected across the entire group—from those who use it infrequently to those who use it frequently.

Study finds that telemedicine visits cost far less than office visits

Telemedicine visits are five times less costly than in-person appointments for the most common conditions able to be treated by both forms of visits, new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows. On average, telemedicine patient visits were billed $400 less, and they also resulted in fewer follow-up visits after the initial appointment. The analysis is published in JAMA Network Open.

Solving cancer immunotherapy’s fuel shortage with a protected sugar source

Researchers at UCLA have found a way to supercharge immune cells with a fuel source that tumors can't steal, dramatically improving their ability to survive and attack solid tumors in preclinical studies. The approach, published in the journal Cell, could help overcome a major barrier that has limited the effectiveness of CAR-T and other immunotherapies in solid tumors such as lung, breast, and colorectal cancer, where immune cells are often "starved" of energy by aggressive cancer cells.