HCP|NETWORK.
Sign In
Please enter a keyword or adjust filters to filter the search.
General Medicine
15th Jan, 2026
The Lancet
We would like to thank Mustafa Turgut Yildizgören for his Correspondence, which gives us the opportunity to further clarify some of the rationale behind the design choices of the DISTRICTS study and its findings.1 The DISTRICTS trial compared the effectiveness of two treatment strategies for carpal tunnel syndrome: one starting with surgery and one starting with a corticosteroid injection, with the option to receive additional treatments in both strategies if needed.1 We deliberately chose not to impose a strict treatment protocol on participating centres.
We thank Peng Luo and colleagues for their interest in our work and insightful Correspondence regarding our Article on satricabtagene autoleucel (satri-cel).1 Their points on the dynamic nature of claudin-18 isoform 2 (CLDN18.2) expression and the effect of tumour biological heterogeneity are well received and resonated with broader challenges in the field of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in solid tumours.
The Article by Changsong Qi and colleagues,1 on satricabtagene autoleucel (satri-cel), a claudin-18 isoform 2 (CLDN18.2) targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, is a crucial milestone in addressing therapeutic stagnation in gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinomas. However, the discussion surrounding biomarker-based patient selection, particularly CLDN18.2 expression, warrants deeper scrutiny.
We thank Guilherme Corrêa de Araújo Moury Fernandes and colleagues for their response to our Seminar,1 and their discussion of the use of platelet-rich plasma for the management of knee osteoarthritis. We agree that not all platelet-rich plasma is equivalent. Platelet-rich plasma is an autologous blood product prepared from patients’ whole blood, comprising platelets, leukocytes, growth factors, and cytokines. Its composition depends on the concentration of the constituents in whole blood, and on the manufacturing procedure, which differs in centrifugation protocol, addition of activators, and other factors.
We read with interest the Seminar by Margreet Kloppenburg and colleagues,1 which provides a comprehensive overview of osteoarthritis. However, we were surprised by the assertion that there is an absence of evidence for the use of platelet-rich plasma for knee osteoarthritis. This conclusion, based primarily on the RESTORE trial,2 overlooks important and recent high-quality data.
Lead poisoning remains one of the world's most significant yet preventable environmental health threats. It accounts for 1·5% of annual global deaths1 and disproportionately affects those in southeast Asia, which has more than 20% of the world's children who are affected by lead.2 In this region, exposure to lead is concentrated in lower-income economies: 1·6% of children in Thailand have blood lead concentrations above the WHO threshold of 5 μg/dL,3 which is similar to high-income countries. By comparison, 79·4% of children in neighbouring Cambodia are estimated to exceed this threshold.
A hospital invoice for a baby's birth in the USA occasionally makes the rounds on social media. For those of us lucky enough to live in the UK with universal health coverage through the National Health Service (NHS), the itemised costings for even a “normal” American delivery seem, frankly, grotesque: the hefty mark-up on a single sanitary pad; dollars for one dose of over-the-counter painkillers; billing for “skin to skin” between mother and baby.
“When I was really little”, says Rachel Clarke, looking back to her days at primary school, “we had to write a book called All About Me. Mine has a picture of me at a desk saying ‘When I grow up, I am going to be a writer of books.’” Clarke has more than fulfilled her childhood ambition and is the author of four books. The Story of a Heart, her account of a cardiac transplant from one child to another, won the UK's 2025 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. Clarke divides her time equally between writing and work as a palliative care specialist in the UK.
Global Health Watch 7 (GHW7) is an important intervention in the theory and practice of global health, especially at a time of upheaval and uncertainty. (I am writing these words as I listen to the news that US forces have bombed Venezuela's capital, Caracas, and captured, arrested, and indicted the country's dictator-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores: the prospects for a rules-based world order have just swerved sharply towards danger.) The co-editors of GHW7, Ron Labonté and Chiara Bodini, have succeeded in offering alternative narratives to challenge prevailing beliefs and assumptions in global health—a discipline that rarely challenges the political and economic foundations of its work.
The history of human health and migration, the human story, is deeply intertwined with the natural environment. As described by Anthony McMichael,1 pioneering scholar of health and environmental change, the climate is not merely a backdrop to human life, it is embedded in who we are and how we live. Modern human civilisation has been facilitated by the remarkably stable climatic conditions of the Holocene: the past 11 000 years during which century-to-century global average temperatures varied by no more than 1°C.
The study by Steven J Frank and colleagues1 in The Lancet is the first randomised, phase 3 trial comparing intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in patients with oropharyngeal cancer. Support for the role of proton radiotherapy for head and neck cancer has previously come from dosimetric studies,2 as well as retrospective and case–control clinical reports.3–5 A study with early experience from the MD Anderson Cancer Center compared 50 patients treated with IMPT with 100 patients treated with IMRT, finding a significant reduction in acute gastrostomy tube use and severe weight loss with IMPT, but no difference in tumour control.
Follicular lymphoma remains an incurable malignancy characterised by successive relapses. Despite favourable initial responses to front-line therapy, most patients eventually relapse, and lymphoma or treatment-related complications remain the leading cause of death.1 Accumulating evidence shows that the duration of response shortens with each subsequent line of therapy, resulting in progressively reduced progression-free survival and overall survival after each line of treatment.2,3
Despite progress since 2020, including the approval of immunotherapy as third-line treatment, relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma remains a clinical challenge, particularly among patients with early progression or resistance to anti-CD20-based regimens. Although the combination of lenalidomide and rituximab is a well established, chemotherapy-free option endorsed by international guidelines, outcomes remain suboptimal in high-risk populations, underscoring the need for novel therapeutic strategies.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae inexorably develops resistance to antimicrobials used for treatment. The discovery of novel antimicrobials to treat gonorrhoea is a global priority and antimicrobial-resistant N gonorrhoeae has been identified as an urgent public health threat.1,2 Ceftriaxone remains the primary recommended regimen for gonorrhoea treatment globally. However, reports from China, Cambodia, Viet Nam, and the UK, among other countries, signal a rising threat to the preeminent place of ceftriaxone within the gonococcal treatment armamentarium due to decreased susceptibility to ceftriaxone and periodic ceftriaxone treatment failures, highlighting the importance of enhanced global antimicrobial surveillance to monitor resistance trends.
The levying of a 13% tax on condoms sold in China from Jan 1 is the country's latest policy aimed at reversing its falling total fertility rate (TFR; the average number of children a woman might expect to have in her lifetime); additionally, couples can claim cash payments of 3600 yuan (US$500) a year for each child younger than 3 years, as part of a scheme announced in July, 2025. China is one of more than half of all countries where the TFR is below 2·1 births per woman, the level required to keep the population stable.
What's New: Drugs
6th Apr, 2026
FDA
Center,
Research
7th Apr, 2026
3rd Apr, 2026
