The main highlight this week comes from two research Articles with encouraging news about a possible future treatment option for rheumatoid arthritis. Both papers assess the strategy of blocking interleukin 6, a proinflammatory cytokine that plays a key role in the inflammatory process and in the destructive autoimmune response that underlies rheumatoid arthritis. Investigators from Vienna Medical University in Austria show in a randomised trial how the use of the human monoclonal antibody tocilizumab showed considerable efficacy in reducing arthritis symptoms after 3 months use. Researchers from Japan show in another research Article how this monoclonal antibody is a promising treatment among children and young adults.

In the Comment section two interesting pieces relating to global health, and well worth a read:

Anaesthesia in developing countries-a risk for patients

Leprosy strategy is about control, not eradication

In World Report:

Dengue is spreading in the Americas. Incremental changes in climate could help explain the disease’s expansion, according to environmental scientists. But some dengue experts have called the link with climate “alarmist” and scientifically unsound. Do read Eliza Barclay’s report.

In an attempt to curb human trafficking, part of India’s Government wants to make buying sex illegal. But public-health experts are worried that such a move would drive sex work underground and hamper efforts to control HIV/AIDS in the country. Patralekha Chatterjee reports.

Back to research, strong evidence that chemotherapy given before and after surgery is a more effective strategy than surgery alone for removing secondary liver tumours associated with colorectal cancer.

Our lead Editorial discusses geriatric medicine, a crucial yet unfashionable specialty which needs reinvigorating as the elderly population grows larger in most parts of the world.

And finally, two Seminars this week about leukaemia: the first concluding that emerging molecular technologies suggest that drugs targeting the genetic defects of leukaemic cells could revolutionise the management of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. 

The second comments how the development of new drugs has helped treat chronic lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Bookmark on delicious | Digg

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under The Lancet Digest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.