Will Antiangiogenic Agents be a Future for Mesothelioma Therapy?

Background: Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive disease that is diagnosed mostly in locally advanced or metastatic stage. In this condition chemotherapy with the combination cisplatin and pemetrexed or ralitrexed represents the standard treatment as supported by a phase III study. However, chemotherapy has very limited effect on the improvement of survival of patients and very few of the MM patients survive more than 2 years. A better understanding of molecular mechanisms and pathways involved in angiogenesis in MM is the basis for the development of new drugs targeted against these pathways responsible for the proliferation and survival of tumor cells.

Advances in microbicide vaginal rings

Vaginal ring devices capable of providing sustained/controlled release of incorporated actives are already marketed for steroidal contraception and estrogen replacement therapy. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in developing similar ring devices for the administration of microbicidal compounds to prevent vaginal HIV transmission. Intended to be worn continuously, such coitally independent micro- bicide rings are being developed to maintain effective vaginal microbicide concentrations over many weeks or months, thereby overcoming issues around timing of product application, user compliance and acceptability associated with more conventional semi-solid formulations. In this article, an overview of vaginal ring technologies is presented, followed by a review of recent advances and issues pertaining to their application for the delivery of HIV microbicides. This article forms part of a special supplement on presentations covering intravaginal rings, based on the symposium “Trends in Microbicide Formulations”, held on 25 and 26 January 2010, Arlington, VA.

A longitudinal observational study of insulin therapy and glycaemic control in Scottish children with Type 1 diabetes: DIABAUD 3

Objective/background Our objective was to investigate glycaemic control in children with Type 1 diabetes in Scotland and to analyse the effect of changing 'conventional' insulin regimen strategies on outcome. DIABAUD 2 ( 1997 - 1998) (D2) demonstrated that average glycaemic control in young people with Type 1 diabetes in Scotland was poor, with mean HbA(1c) of 9.0%. Over 90% were then treated with a twice-daily insulin regimen. The aim of DIABAUD 3 ( 2002 2004) (D3) was to determine if control had improved, and to examine changes in insulin regimen and effects on glycaemic control.