Vertebral fracture risk reduction by teriparatide administration persists for at least 18 months after discontinuation of therapy.

Tremacamra reduced the severity of experimental rhinovirus colds. Whether tremacamra will be useful clinically will require further study.

Urinary incontinence is perceived as a barrier to exercise, particularly by women with more severe leakage.

Objective. Chemotherapy-associated peripheral neuropathy (CAPN) is a painful side-effect of chemotherapy. This study assesses healthcare and workloss costs of CAPN patients with breast, ovarian, head/neck, or non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from a third-party payor/employer perspective. Research Design and Methods. Patients with qualifying tumors, and claims for chemotherapy and services indicative of peripheral neuropathy (PN) within 9-months of chemotherapy (cases) were identified in a administrative claims database. Cases were matched 1 : 1 to controls with no PN-related claims based on demographics, diabetes history and propensity for having a diagnosis of PN during the study period (based on resource use and comorbidities in a 3-month baseline period). Average all-cause healthcare costs, resource use and workloss burden were determined. Results. Average healthcare costs were $17,344 higher for CAPN cases than their non-CAPN controls, with outpatient costs being the highest component (with cases having excess costs of $8,092). On average, each CAPN case had 12 more outpatient visits than controls, and spent more days in the hospital. Workloss burden was higher for cases but not statistically different from controls. Conclusion. This study establishes that breast, ovarian, head/neck, or NSCLC patients with CAPN have significant excess healthcare costs and resource use.

Urinary incontinence is prevalent among employed women. Those who experience severe symptoms report that it has a negative effect on aspects of work. Programs on the prevalence and impact of urinary incontinence would help educate both employers and employees, and may lead to the development of better management techniques in the workplace.

Weight loss significantly reduced diabetes-related costs. Controlling for baseline factors in the regression model, the 1-year total health care cost following 1% weight loss (or gain) was $213 cost decrease (or increase). Diabetes-related cost did not appear to be associated with weight gain. Economic benefit of weight loss was evident among type 2 diabetic patients on antidiabetic therapy, especially among obese patients.

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PurposeNon-CML myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) include essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), and myelofibrosis (MF). Reported median overall survival (OS) ranges from a few to several years for MF, a decade or more for ET and PV. The study objective was to compare US survival rates of ET, PV, and MF patients with matched non-MPN/non-cancer controls in a nationally representative database.Patients and MethodsData were taken retrospectively from the Survey, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database. Medicare enrollees with a new SEER MPN diagnosis between Jan 1, 2001 and Dec 31, 2007 were eligible. First MPN diagnosis was required at or after Medicare enrollment to allow for continuous follow-up. Non-MPN/non-cancer control groups were selected from Medicare separately for each MPN subtype and demographically matched to cases at a ratio of 5∶1. Survival was determined starting from the case diagnosis date using the Kaplan-Meier method.ResultsA total of 3,364 MPN patients (n = 1,217 ET; 1,625 PV; 522 MF) met the inclusion criteria and were matched to controls. Mean age was 78.4, 76.1, and 77.4 years for ET, PV, and MF, respectively, and percent female was 63, 50, and 41. Median OS was significantly (p<0.05) lower for MPN cases vs. controls (ET: 68 vs. 101 months; PV: 65 vs. 104; MF: 24 vs. 106).ConclusionsIn the US Medicare population, survival in MF patients was worse than that of patients with ET or PV and significantly worse than matched controls. Survival of patients with ET or PV was substantially inferior to matched controls. These findings have implications for the clinical management of MPN patients and underscore the need for effective therapies in all MPN subtypes.