LONGECITY

Title from the Telegraph is a little sensationalistic but the finding is indeed a great advance in the fight against heart disease and cancer. The quoted text is from the Telegraph page but i am posting below the links from other outlets as well.

 

http://www.telegraph...-against-heart/

 

 

 

https://www.theguard...isk-study-finds

 

https://www.nytimes....dy.html?mcubz=0

 

http://www.thelancet...xt?elsca1=tlxpr

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Cholesterol-busting statins are given to millions of adults deemed to be at risk of heart disease.

But half of heart attacks occur in people who do not have high cholesterol at all.

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.

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.

 

 

Edited by forever freedom, 29 August 2017 - 11:20 AM.

What the fuck with that formatting. Can you strip it down to plain text? I'm getting about 5 characters per line on the rhs when using a phone to view.

Sounds interesting, but how will it affect healthy patients? Aspirin lowers some risks early on, but leads to accelerated death when taken beyond a certain age.

I'm sorry PWAIN, i didn't notice this, i was using my notebook. Apparently i can't edit it anymore. I will paste the text below:

 

 

"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.

Cholesterol-busting statins are given to millions of adults deemed to be at risk of heart disease.

But half of heart attacks occur in people who do not have high cholesterol at all.

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.

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.

 

Reading this, "Now scientists have found that reducing inflammation in the body can protect against a host of conditions - with a “really dramatic effect....”,  makes me sometimes wonder who these "scientists are. I mean, really, I could have told them that?! Does this proclamation coming from them make it all so much more of a 'miracle' discovery?

 

It's like they're all about 6 yrs old, just starting to learn the ins and outs of being a living organism.

 

After all, inflammation is everywhere and involved in virtually all aspects of bodily dis-ease and healing!  It's where many of life's problems, big and little start, and what we should all be trying to keep to a more useful, rather than the detrimental amount in our lives.

 

And in the "If you believe this, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you" department...

 

"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."

 

​Fat chance that!

Edited by Oakman, 30 August 2017 - 01:11 PM.

Is this drug Nicotinamide Riboside Sodium Chloride?

I do wonder if we could lower the price significantly in a group bulk buy. I wonder how hard this stuff is to make. I think I saw somewhere that it will always be expensive because it is not just some chemical. Anyone here know?

Wikipedia has this to say, in part,  about CANTOS Canakinumab trial:

 

On Aug 27, 2017, the results of the CANTOS trial were announced at the European Society of Cardiology and published Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.^[12] CANTOS saw a 15% reduction in deaths from heart attacks, stroke and cardiovascular disease combined. CANTOS also observed serious side-effects, and no statistically significant overall survival benefit. Nonetheless, David Goff, director of the division of cardiovascular sciences at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute feels "public health impact potential is really substantial,” and estimates 3 million Americans might benefit from canakinumab.^[12]

 

^{(Wikipedia is useful in that a Wikipedia article is read by one for information (perhaps with a "that's interesting" response to the article, or maybe "that's bunk"). And then, the real utility of Wikipedia, in my opinion,  comes out in that "reliable sources" are required to back up claims made in the article proper. So, I for one, go to the reliable sources, typically peer-reviewed journal articles for subjects such as the one in this thread, with an aim of confirming that the Wiki article reflects a verifiable interpretation of the facts. In some cases, such as this, I don't have journal access, so I'm not sure how the above fits with the facts.)}

Edited by Advocatus Diaboli, 31 August 2017 - 03:37 PM.

Sounds interesting, but how will it affect healthy patients? Aspirin lowers some risks early on, but leads to accelerated death when taken beyond a certain age.

 

What is this certain age beyond  which we should not use aspirin? First I heard of that.

 

If there are serious side effects with canakinumab  and no overall survival benefit then its not such a great thing after all. 

Don't believe all the headlines.

Sounds interesting, but how will it affect healthy patients? Aspirin lowers some risks early on, but leads to accelerated death when taken beyond a certain age.

Hey I am 25 and I am taking 40 MG Asprin every other night is it good ? or bad ?

Hey I am 25 and I am taking 40 MG Asprin every other night is it good ? or bad ?h when taken beyond a certain age.

 

 

Probably doesn't matter at your age.  Your metabolism and energy levels are probably fine.  Unless you have a medical reason to try to thin your blood slightly or you are completely sedentary, it doesn't matter really.

 

Sounds interesting, but how will it affect healthy patients? Aspirin lowers some risks early on, but leads to accelerated death when taken beyond a certain age.

Hey I am 25 and I am taking 40 MG Asprin every other night is it good ? or bad ?

 

It's complicated, I don't want to get off topic. Check your pms.

 

Hey I am 25 and I am taking 40 MG Asprin every other night is it good ? or bad ?h when taken beyond a certain age.

 

 

Probably doesn't matter at your age.  Your metabolism and energy levels are probably fine.  Unless you have a medical reason to try to thin your blood slightly or you are completely sedentary, it doesn't matter really.

 

It could slow aging. I definitely looked younger when I was taking it in my twenties.