Latest Clinical & Research News
According to a recent study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), preoperative opioid use is associated with poor pain outcomes, leading study authors to propose limiting opioid use prior to knee replacement surgery. Read More
Imagers, gastric pacemakers and other diagnostic and therapeutic tools could someday transform the way diseases of the gastrointestinal tract are measured and treated. But in order for these electronic devices to work, they need a power source. Traditional power sources, such as batteries, can be incompatible with the mucosal lining of the gastrointestinal tract and have a limited lifespan within the body. A more promising possibility is to power electronic devices from outside the body or potentially by the body. Read More
When the kidneys – vital organs for filtering the body’s entire blood supply – become injured, it can set in motion an unfortunate chain of events that leads to a decline in health. Sometimes, in response to chronic injury, the body begins an aberrant repair process known as fibrosis, in which normal fibroblast cells transform into myofibroblasts, proliferate out of control, migrate and form scar tissue. Once scar tissue begins to form, functional cells begin to die, and the scar tissue multiplies. Investigators have been looking for a way to break this cycle, and new findings indicate that a gene known as SMOC2 may point the way to a new intervention that could prevent this cascade of events. Read More
A first-of-its-kind clinical trial at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) has shown that administering an oral multiple sclerosis (MS) drug to patients younger than 18 years of age is safe and 82 percent more effective than an injectable treatment that is the current standard of care. Read More
Amazon Echo invention brings treatment to psychiatry patients
Ash Nadkarni, MD, an associate psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), designs and studies innovation that facilitates the integration of psychiatry into other medical specialties. Read More
Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer is one of few centers in the country certified to offer this new approach.
Following a successful clinical trial involving Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for adult cancers was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct.19. Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center was the only facility in the northeast to be part of the clinical trial that led to FDA approval and is one of a few locations certified to offer this new therapy nationwide. Read More
Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) researchers have identified new genetic markers associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The discovery has shed light on the genetic basis for the disease. Read More
A recent study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) investigators found that women who breastfed for longer periods of time were less likely to develop endometriosis. These findings offer new insights into a condition that has had very few known, modifiable risk factors. The findings were published in The BMJ. Read More
In a groundbreaking study, experts at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) showed that a personalized cancer vaccine, which targets neoantigens, stimulated a potent, safe and highly specific anti-tumor response in six patients with melanoma. Read More
Recent research led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggests that the likelihood of a patient getting prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for the early detection of prostate cancer depends on the type of physician he sees.
In October 2011, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a recommendation against the use of PSA testing for prostate cancer screening for all men. In its assessment, the task force concluded that, overall, the harms of PSA testing outweigh its benefits. The study authors, however, hypothesized that adoption of the USPSTF recommendation would vary according to a physician’s specialty. Read More