Reviews on recent clinical trials
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Rev Recent Clin Trials · Jan 2021
ReviewTocilizumab in Sars-cov-2 Patients with the Syndrome of Cytokine Storm; a Narrative review.
Corona virus is a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, these families of viruses can cause respiratory infections from a mild form to fatal. It is preferably called coronavirus. Formally, it is known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and this disease is called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 is infectious in humans and the world health organization has announced COVID-19 as pandemic disease. Tocilizumab is a biological agent that inhibits the cytokine, interleukin 6 (IL-6 inhibitor). As SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to the development of cytokine storm syndrome, the drug, tocilizumab, seems to have a positive effect on patients with COVID-19. ⋯ The rational use of the tocilizumab in severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients can prevent the development of irreversible lung injury and death of the patient. Three retrospective studies of Xiaoling Xu et al., Pan luo et al., and Paola Tonaiti et al. have shown the efficacy of tocilizumab in severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients. However, we need more randomized research studies with a significant number of patients which can confirm the promising results on tocilizumab treatment in COVID-19 patients. Moreover, ongoing clinical trails such as TOSCA, COVACTA results have not been published yet which are expected to give better and more significant results on tocilizumab's effectiveness and safety.
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Malignant pleural effusion, which is a common clinical problem in patients with cancer, may be due to both primary thoracic tumours or to a metastatic spread in the chest and constitutes the first sign of disease in approximately 10% of patients. Almost all cancers can potentially produce a pleural effusion. The presence of malignant tumour cells in the pleural fluid is generally indicative of advanced disease and is associated with high morbidity and mortality with reduced therapeutic options. Dyspnoea during mild physical activity or at rest is generally the typical sign of restrictive respiratory failure. ⋯ Despite progress in therapeutic options, the prognosis remains severe, and the average survival is 4-9 months from the diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion. Moreover, mortality is higher for patients with malignant pleural effusion compared with those with metastatic cancer but no malignant pleural effusion. Therefore, the prognosis of these patients primarily depends on the underlying disease and the extension of a primary tumour. This review focuses on the most relevant updates in the management of malignant pleural effusion.