Anaheim, CA-The largest trial of cholesterol-lowering therapy ever conducted extends the current indications for statin therapy, reported Rory Collins, MD.

An agent developed specifically for the treatment of angina reduces the incidence of major coronary events, reported Henry Dargie, MD, who presented the results of a trial known as the Impact of Nicorandil in Angina (IONA). It is believed to be the first large-scale trial to report on the effects of a specific antianginal drug on clinical outcome.

Ranolazine, the first in a new class of antianginal agents called the partial fatty acid oxidation (pFOX) inhibitors, improves exercise performance and reduces angina frequency in patients who still have symptoms despite treatment with other antianginal medications, according to Bernard Chaitman, MD. He reported the results of a Phase III study called the Combination Assessment of Ranolazine in Stable Angina (CARISA).

According to the results of an extended follow-up of the African American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension (AASK), long-term reduction of blood pressure to a lower goal than the standard demonstrates no significant effect on the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in nondiabetic hypertensive patients, except in patients with baseline urinary protein/creatinine ratio >0.22, said Jackson Wright, MD, professor of medicine and director of the hypertension program at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. These results were presented at the 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension, New Orleans, May 14–17, 2008.

The combination of amlodipine and olmesartan was demonstrated to be superior to monotherapy with either agent in difficult-to-treat hypertensive populations in a subgroup analysis of the registrational trial for this combination therapy. These results were presented at the 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension, New Orleans, May 14–17, 2008.

An investigational first-in-class dual angiotensin and endothelin receptor antagonist lowered systolic blood pressure (SBP) in patients with stage 1 and 2 hypertension in a phase 2a trial, reported Joel M. Neutel, MD, associate professor of medicine, University of California, Irvine, and medical director of clinical pharmacology, Orange County Research Center, Tustin, California. These results were presented at the 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension, New Orleans, May 14–17, 2008.

Metformin may represent a novel antitumor agent, say investigators from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston.

Ambulatory patients with cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy should not receive prophylactic anticoagulation to prevent venous thromboembolism, according to new guidelines developed by ASCO. "It's not cost effective and we also do not recommend screening these patients for thrombophilia," said Mark Levine, MD, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Physicians treating cancer-related depression with paroxetine should not expect patients' insomnia to also improve, according to a study presented by Oxana G. Palesh, PhD, University of Rochester Cancer Center, NY. "We know that insomnia and depression often occur together frequently in the general population, suggesting that there may be a common mechanism," she said.