Welcome to The Pulse, a weekly roundup of health-focused news. Each Thursday, we bring you updates on health policy, community surveys, new clinical studies, programs and services in Southwest and Southside Virginia.
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New clinical trials for cancer research come to Roanoke
Carilion Clinic is expanding cancer research in Roanoke by bringing in new clinical trials as part of the development of the Carilion Taubman Cancer Center.
Clinical trials test new treatments and medical devices and play a key role in the Food and Drug Administration approval process. They also give patients access to promising therapies that are not yet widely available
Among the new treatments coming to Roanoke are radiopharmaceutical therapies, a form of precision medicine that uses radioactive isotopes to diagnose and treat cancer. According to Carilion, the therapies have shown promise in treating a wide range of tumors.
[Disclosure: Carilion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
The new clinical trials will target cancer pain, renal cell carcinoma and glioblastoma. They build on research conducted with Blue Ridge Cancer Care, which led to FDA approval of Pluvicto and Lutathera, two therapies that are in use today, according to a Carilion press release.
“The opportunity to expand access to these much-needed, innovative therapies for patients is exciting, and we are aggressively seeking clinical trials that will make Roanoke a destination for cancer research and leading-edge care,” Dr. Lana Wahid, vice chair for research in Carilion’s Department of Medicine, said in the release.
Carilion also joined Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC to host a workshop with the Appalachian Radiotheranostics Coalition, which took place in June. The one-day event educated researchers and doctors on radiopharmaceutical therapy used for community-based programs.
Researchers from around the world presented findings on astatine, a radioactive isotope being studied as a treatment for brain, prostate and other cancers. The workshop was the second of four sponsored by the coalition as part of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s “Mars Shot” initiative.
Carilion currently has about 150 clinical trials underway across more than 20 medical specialties, according to the news release.
Counterfeit car seats are cropping up in Virginia
The University of Virginia Medical Center is warning parents about a rise in counterfeit infant car seats after staff found at least five unapproved seats in patients’ vehicles over the past six months, according to a UVa Health news release.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, regulates child car seats and requires every model manufactured or sold in the United States to meet federal safety standards.
Counterfeit seats are noticeably lighter because they lack the steel frame found in approved models, LeeAnn Brown, a nurse and certified car seat technician at UVa Health, said during a virtual briefing last week.
Brown showed a confiscated counterfeit seat whose manufacturer’s label stated it was intended for dolls, not infants. She said parents have purchased the seats through Amazon, TikTok and Temu, where sellers advertise them as approved infant car seats.
The counterfeit seats also lack a chest clip, which helps keep the harness properly positioned and reduces the risk of a child being ejected during a crash.
Brown said many health insurance plans cover the cost of an approved infant car seat. She encouraged parents to purchase new seats from established retailers such as Target or Walmart and to check the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s list of approved car seat manufacturers before buying.
Researcher investigates brain changes behind dystonia
A postdoctoral researcher at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC is investigating a mysterious neurological disorder: dystonia.
Dystonia is a movement disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions, leading to twisting, repetitive movements and abnormal postures. Although physicians first named the disorder in 1911, scientists still don’t know what causes it.
Over the next two years, researcher Viviana Hernández-Castañón will study how brain activity changes as dystonia develops, with the goal of improving scientists’ understanding of the disorder.
“We are interested in predicting the onset of dystonia, but also understanding the progression of the disease,” Hernández-Castañón said in a press release. “Our aim is to record electrical activity in the brain using a minimally invasive electroencephalography technique. We will track the activity over time and identify biomarkers of brain activity that can indicate that either dystonia is already developing or we are about to observe the symptoms emerge.”
Her research is supported by a $150,000 fellowship grant from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation.
