The New England journal of medicine
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Obecabtagene autoleucel (obe-cel) is an autologous 41BB-ζ anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy which uses an intermediate-affinity CAR to reduce toxic effects and improve persistence. ⋯ Obe-cel resulted in a high incidence of durable response among adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell ALL, with a low incidence of grade 3 or higher immune-related toxic effects. (Funded by Autolus Therapeutics; FELIX ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04404660.).
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Whether surgical axillary staging as part of breast-conserving therapy can be omitted without compromising survival has remained unclear. ⋯ In this trial involving patients with clinically node-negative, T1 or T2 invasive breast cancer (90% with clinical T1 cancer and 79% with pathological T1 cancer), omission of surgical axillary staging was noninferior to sentinel-lymph-node biopsy after a median follow-up of 6 years. (Funded by the German Cancer Aid; INSEMA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02466737.).
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Standard multidrug therapy for leprosy may be associated with severe side effects, which add to the stigma and discrimination that affect persons with the disease. In addition, the threat posed by drug-resistant leprosy shows the need for alternative drug combinations and shorter, safer regimens of multidrug therapy. ⋯ In patients with multibacillary leprosy, bedaquiline monotherapy cleared M. leprae by 4 weeks of treatment and led to improvement in the appearance of skin lesions by 7 weeks. (Funded by Janssen Research and Development; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03384641.).