In Global News: I Love Life – Not Heart Failure, Air Pollution, and Medical Overuse

Patient Care
The “I Love Life” campaign to raise awareness of heart failure in Egypt launched this week.
Pollution was determined to contribute to over 9 million deaths worldwide in 2015, with over 70% of these being heart-related and lung-related deaths linked to air pollution.
Surgical teams from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, and Boston Children’s Hospital in the US collaborated to provide congenital heart surgery free of charge for 140 Ghanaian children.
 
Drugs and Devices
Alectinib (Alecensatm, Roche) was recommended by the European Medicine Agency CHMP as a first-line treatment for ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer.
The Phase 3 JUNIPER trial evaluating abemaciclib (Verzeniotm, Eli Lilly) as monotherapy for KRAS-mutated non-small cell lung cancer did not meet the primary endpoint of overall survival, but secondary endpoints suggested efficacy.
 
Research, Trials, and Funding
A review published in JAMA: Internal Medicine highlights what the authors determined to be the 10 most notable studies examining medical overuse published in 2016.
Heart surgery might provide useful benefits to patients with trisomy 13 and trisomy 18.