In Global News: 3D Printing Tracheas, Free Heart Surgery for Children, and a Test for Barrett’s Esophagus [1]
Patient Care
China and Cambodia will work together on a program to provide free heart surgery to 100 Cambodian children [3] with congenital heart disease.
Quadruple bypass surgery was the inspiration a Singapore man needed to turn his lifestyle heart-healthy. Now he has run the Singapore Marathon [4].
A balloon sampling device that can be swallowed and then retrieved might provide an easier test for Barrett’s esophagus [5].
Drugs and Devices
The US Food and Drug Administration has expanded approval of the lung cancer drug afatinib to patients whose tumors show any of five EGFR mutations [6].
Brazil marked its first implantations of the transcatheter pulmonary valve called the Venus P-Valve [7], which is made by Chinese company Venus Medtech, Inc. The valve is under clinical trial investigation in Europe and the US.
Research, Trials, and Funding
Researchers in Japan have 3D-printed artificial tracheas [8] without scaffolds using spheroids composed of multiple cell types, which they have transplanted into rats.
Merck announced that its anti-PD-L1 therapy, pembrolizumab met its primary endpoints of longer overall and progression-free survival [9] when given in combination with pemetrexed and chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer.