AstraZeneca had a drug that could have prolonged the lives of control arm patients after they progressed. Outside of the study they marketed it. But they didn't give them the drug. They just counted their deaths so they could get a win. #ASCO23 And you celebrate?

Six-Month Follow-up of a Trial of Spinal Cord Burst Stimulation vs Placebo Stimulation and Disability in Patients With Chronic Radicular Pain After Lumbar Spine Surgery. Still not better than placebo. jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

Spinal core stimulation failure in patients with failed back surgery. Placebo is just as good. jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

Follow-up study examines back pain–related disability at 6 months following a randomized trial of spinal cord burst stimulation for chronic radicular pain after lumbar spine surgery. ja.ma/3J8mwmA

Elsevier 2022 revenue and profit: $3.5B and $1.3B. Springer Nature 2021 : $1.7B and $442M. Oxford University Press 2022: $993M and $136M. AACR 2022: $19M and 6M. If you are wondering why you get so much publishing spam: It's a profitable business.

Current evidence suggests SCS probably does not have sustained clinical benefits that would outweigh the costs and risks of this surgical intervention. (Spinal cord stimulator). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36878313/ #chronicpain #thepaincoach

In my latest for Sensible Medicine, I remember a man I took care of years ago who underwent lung cancer screening. Sometimes people think that cancer screening has no downsides, but it does, particularly when the evidence is weak sensiblemed.substack.com/p/i-just-want-…

Study findings do not support the addition of extracranial-intracranial bypass surgery to medical therapy for the treatment of patients with symptomatic atherosclerotic occlusion of the internal carotid artery or middle cerebral artery. ja.ma/3QQEoap

Noen som vet hvordan man shorter et helseforetak? #helseplattformen

Hva skjer i Trondheim, egentlig? Kanskje NTNU-rektoren kan bli ny sjef for Helseplattformen? Eller hovedtrener i Rosenborg? Noe må skje, iallfall.

New paper out today in JAMA Internal Medicine. Prof Lisa Bero and I analyse how industry-funded authors respond to unfavourable findings on spinal cord stimulation. Some concerning patterns... #backpain #ChronicPain jamanetwork.com/journals/jamai…

Looking forward to meet Scandinavian/Nordic neuro-oncology friends in April 🇫🇮🇩🇰🇸🇪 🇳🇴🇮🇸: cancerakademin.se/evenemang/snog… Present, interact, collaborate, socialize👩‍⚕️👨🏾‍🎓👩🏼‍💻👩🏾‍🔬👨🏻‍🏫at this exciting newly opened venue: strawberry.se/hotell/sverige…

Patients with evidence of microplastics and nanoplastics in carotid artery plaque, as compared with patients without, had a greater risk of adverse cardiovascular events at 34 months of follow-up. Read the full article: nej.md/3IrM6T8

CAR-T kills more people early Population was *NOT* heavily pretreated OS is not significantly improved Data are too immature for OS analysis What does the FDA do? 11-0! If anything, with emerging alternative options, CAR-T should move BACK in lines of therapy

8-3 vote on a IDA Cel Drug doesn't improve survival Clearly OS curves look like they will never be positive Tons of toxicity, early death Astonishingly low standards in Cancer medicine

Another example of medicalisation of suffering when a medical response is not the best response. (Shameful as well that basic data on age and gender are missing.) richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2024/04/08/is-…

Occasional reminder that there are no low energy, rich countries

Exciting News! Vorasidenib (brand name: Voranigo) has just been approved by the FDA for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with grade 2 astrocytoma or oligodendroglioma with an IDH1 or IDH2 mutation. Read more: braintumor.org/news/exciting-…

Is decompression alone non-inferior to decompression with instrumented fusion in patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis? New randomised trial investigates Ivar Magne Austevoll bmj.com/content/386/bm…