Well well, finally getting to the root cause of atherosclerosis, cholesterol was never the problem. 25% of your bodys' cholesterol is in your brain, why the hell would you take drugs that reduce that? But I'm not medically trained so nothing I say can be trusted. Urgent trials needed for stroke which will never occur. Start saving your money for this, your insurance won't pay for this.
New wonder drug hailed as biggest breakthrough in fight against heart attacks and cancer - attacks inflammation
A
new class of drugs which could prevent thousands of heart attacks and
deaths from cancer has been hailed as the biggest breakthrough since
statins.
Scientists
last night said the discovery ushered in “a new era of therapeutics”
which work in an entirely different way to conventional treatment.
As well as cutting the risk of a heart attack by one quarter, the drugs halved the chances of dying from cancer and protected against gout and arthritis.
Heart attack: Symptoms and treatment
Cholesterol-busting statins are given to millions of adults deemed to be at risk of heart disease.
Now
scientists have found that reducing inflammation in the body can
protect against a host of conditions - with a “really dramatic effect”
on cancer deaths.
The
drug canakinumab, given by injection every three months - cut repeat
heart attacks by one quarter. Statins cut the risk by around 15 per
cent.
Experts said the findings have “far-reaching” implications for the 200,000 people a year in Britain who suffer a heart attack.
And they called for urgent trials to further examine the impact of the medication on cancer.
Professor
Paul Ridker of Harvard Medical School, presenting his findings at the
European Society of Cardiology congress in Barcelona yesterday, said it
opens up a “third front” in the war on heart disease.
The landmark study tracked 10,000 heart attack victims who were given canakinumab, a drug which targets inflammation.
Typically, around a quarter of survivors will go on to have another event within five years, despite taking statins.
The
four-year study found those given the new treatment saw a 24 per cent
reduction in heart attacks and 17 per cent fall in angina, while those
on the highest dose saw cancer deaths fall by 51 per cent.
Speaking
at the world’s biggest gathering of heart experts, Harvard scientists
said the approach promises to “usher in a new era” of treatment.
statins
Dr
Ridker, from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said: “These
findings represent the end game of more than two decades of research,
stemming from a critical observation: Half of heart attacks occur in
people who do not have high cholesterol.”
“For
the first time, we’ve been able to definitively show that lowering
inflammation independent of cholesterol reduces cardiovascular risk," he
said.
He
said the findings had “far-reaching implications,” opening up a new
generation of treatment. “In my lifetime, I’ve gotten to see three broad
eras of preventative cardiology,” the heart expert said.
“In
the first, we recognized the importance of diet, exercise and smoking
cessation. In the second, we saw the tremendous value of lipid-lowering
drugs such as statins. Now, we’re cracking the door open on the third
era.”
The
findings were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress
in Barcelona and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Inflammation is one of the body's natural responses to infection or
injury. But it also plays a major role in causing heart attacks and
strokes.
Experts
said high levels of inflammation were associated with a variety of
conditions linked to ageing, including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis,
osteoarthritis and gout - all of which reduced among patients put on the
treatment.
The
new treatment - which works by blocking part of the immune system
called interleukin-1 - currently costs around £40,000 annually to treat a
patient with the drug, compared to just £20 for statins.
But
experts say the price would come down if widely adopted. And they said
the cost would be offset by the millions of pounds saved from not having
to perform heart bypasses and other major forms of surgery. Leading
British medics last night hailed the findings as “exciting" and
incredibly important”.
Dr
Derek Connolly, consultant interventional cardiologist at Birmingham
City Hospital, said: “The drug is likely to be given to patients
alongside statins - in a 'twin attack' against cholesterol and
inflammation. “You need lots of bricks to build a wall - this is another
brick in the wall.”
Professor
Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart
Foundation, said: “Nearly 200,000 people are hospitalised due to heart
attacks every year in the UK.
“Cholesterol-lowering
drugs like statins are given to these people to reduce their risk of
another heart attack and this undoubtedly saves lives. But we know that
lowering cholesterol alone is not always enough. “These exciting and
long-awaited trial results finally confirm that ongoing inflammation
contributes to risk of heart disease, and could help save lives.
“The
findings suggest that existing anti-inflammatory drugs, such as
canakinumab, could be given along with cholesterol-lowering drugs to
treat survivors and further reduce their risk of another heart attack.”
Novartis,
the company which produces the drug, said they now intend to apply for a
licence for the treatment for heart attack victims, and to embark on a
new phase III trial about the use of the drugs to protect against
cancer.
No comments:
Post a Comment