The New England journal of medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
A trial of etanercept, a recombinant tumor necrosis factor receptor:Fc fusion protein, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving methotrexate.
Patients treated with methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis often improve but continue to have active disease. This study was undertaken to determine whether the addition of etanercept, a soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor (p75):Fc fusion protein (TNFR:Fc), to methotrexate therapy would provide additional benefit to patients who had persistent rheumatoid arthritis despite receiving methotrexate. ⋯ In patients with persistently active rheumatoid arthritis, the combination of etanercept and methotrexate was safe and well tolerated and provided significantly greater clinical benefit than methotrexate alone.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Twice-daily compared with once-daily thoracic radiotherapy in limited small-cell lung cancer treated concurrently with cisplatin and etoposide.
For small-cell lung cancer confined to one hemithorax (limited small-cell lung cancer), thoracic radiotherapy improves survival, but the best ways of integrating chemotherapy and thoracic radiotherapy remain unsettled. Twice-daily accelerated thoracic radiotherapy has potential advantages over once-daily radiotherapy. ⋯ Four cycles of cisplatin plus etoposide and a course of radiotherapy (45 Gy, given either once or twice daily) beginning with cycle 1 of the chemotherapy resulted in overall two- and five-year survival rates of 44 percent and 23 percent, a considerable improvement in survival rates over previous results in patients with limited small-cell lung cancer.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Reduction of cisplatin-induced emesis by a selective neurokinin-1-receptor antagonist. L-754,030 Antiemetic Trials Group.
The localization of substance P in brain-stem regions associated with vomiting, and the results of studies in ferrets, led us to postulate that a neurokinin-1-receptor antagonist would be an antiemetic in patients receiving anticancer chemotherapy. ⋯ The neurokinin-1-receptor antagonist L-754,030 prevents delayed emesis after treatment with cisplatin. Moreover, combining L-754,030 with granisetron plus dexamethasone improves the prevention of acute emesis.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Calcium supplements for the prevention of colorectal adenomas. Calcium Polyp Prevention Study Group.
Laboratory, clinical, and epidemiologic evidence suggests that calcium may help prevent colorectal adenomas. We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial of the effect of supplementation with calcium carbonate on the recurrence of colorectal adenomas. We randomly assigned 930 subjects (mean age, 61 years; 72 percent men) with a recent history of colorectal adenomas to receive either calcium carbonate (3 g [1200 mg of elemental calcium] daily) or placebo, with follow-up colonoscopies one and four years after the qualifying examination. The primary end point was the proportion of subjects in whom at least one adenoma was detected after the first follow-up endoscopy but up to (and including) the second follow-up examination. Risk ratios for the recurrence of adenomas were adjusted for age, sex, lifetime number of adenomas before the study, clinical center, and length of the surveillance period. ⋯ Calcium supplementation is associated with a significant - though moderate - reduction in the risk of recurrent colorectal adenomas.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A comparison of two antimicrobial-impregnated central venous catheters. Catheter Study Group.
The use of central venous catheters impregnated with either minocycline and rifampin or chlorhexidine and silver sulfadiazine reduces the rates of catheter colonization and catheter-related bloodstream infection as compared with the use of unimpregnated catheters. We compared the rates of catheter colonization and catheter-related bloodstream infection associated with these two kinds of antiinfective catheters. ⋯ The use of central venous catheters impregnated with minocycline and rifampin is associated with a lower rate of infection than the use of catheters impregnated with chlorhexidine and silver sulfadiazine.