Saby George, MD, FACP, professor, oncology, medicine, director, Network Clinical Trials, Department of Medicine, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate professor, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, discusses the efficacy and safety of subcutaneous nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), according to findings from the phase 3 CheckMate 67T (NCT04810078) study.

The multicenter, randomized, open-label, study compared the pharmacokinetics (PK) and objective response rate (ORR) of subcutaneous vs intravenous (IV) nivolumab administration in patients with locally advanced or metastatic ccRCC who had progressed during or after 1 to 2 prior systemic regimens.

Results presented at the 2024 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium showed that the study met its co-primary PK end points of noninferior time-averaged serum concentration over the first 28 days and minimum serum concentration at steady state with subcutaneous vs IV nivolumab, George reports. The study also met its key powered secondary end point of ORR, with a response rate of 24.2% (95% CI, 19.0%-30.0%) for subcutaneous nivolumab vs 18.2% (95% CI, 13.6%-23.6%) for intravenous nivolumab, he adds.

Safety profiles were similar between the approaches, with no significant safety concerns observed, George continues. Although a higher percentage of patients developed anti-drug antibodies with subcutaneous administration, efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetic parameters were not impacted. Notably, the median administration time for subcutaneous nivolumab was significantly shorter, at 5 minutes (range, 0-15) or less compared with 30 minutes (range, 6-133) for intravenous administration.

Overall, these data support the use of subcutaneous nivolumab as an alternative administration option to improve healthcare efficiency. This streamlined administration process could greatly reduce treatment burden on patients by allowing for easier access to treatment, George says. Additionally, subcutaneous administration offers the advantage of potentially being administered in remote areas or smaller healthcare settings, bypassing the need for large infusion centers, George concludes.

If you are keen to do your part for the environment, it’s important that you look at every aspect of your daily life. It’s something that requires you to be honest with yourself about what you are doing and how you are approaching things, and that’s vital for you to remember. One of the areas that people are trying to improve these days with regard to the environment is driving and vehicles. If you are keen to join this movement, there are a lot of things that you can do to make sure you do it right.

In this post, we are going to take you through some of the most important things you need to consider in order to be eco-friendly in your approach to driving and keeping a car. As long as you are aware of at least some of these, you should find that you have a much more eco-friendly approach on the whole, so let’s take a look and see what might be involved here.

Choose An Eco Car

First of all, and perhaps the most important, is to make sure that you have simply chosen an eco car in the first place. The actual choice of which car you drive is going to make a huge difference to how much of an impact you are having on the planet, so this is something you should be careful not to overlook. But how can you make sure that you are choosing a truly eco-car, one which is going to have the minimal effect on the planet you are hoping for?

There are a few major options that you might want to consider here. First of all, you could opt for a hybrid car. These are great in that they use less fuel and more electricity, so you will be limiting your impact that way. They are also generally cheaper to run, and you’ll find that the tax on them is much less too. Beyond that, you should also consider some other options – for instance, you might want to get an all-electric car.

However, not everyone can afford just that. In the near future, electric cars should get cheaper and cheaper, and the charging infrastructure should get more widespread. For now, you should opt for this if you can afford it.

Of course, you don’t have to go all-electric or even hybrid to make a difference. You could simply opt for a car with an eco boost, which is a feature that brings into life certain eco functions when driving. If you look at these 2024 Mustang EcoBoost parts, you will see an example of that kind of vehicle. That is one great option if you want to have a more eco-friendly vehicle but can’t necessarily drive a hybrid or all-electric.

In any case, if you are careful about which car you drive, that is one of the major things you can do to be more eco-friendly with how you drive.

Keep Your Vehicle Well-Maintained

Another very simple thing you can do that will make a huge difference is to make sure that you are keeping your vehicle very well maintained. The more that you are generally looking after your car in this way, the better. Why? A well-maintained car is more efficient to drive, and that means that you are using less fuel – and therefore having much less of an impact on the environment and the world.

So which are some of the main kinds of maintenance that you should keep on top of here? Most of all, you should ensure that you are looking after the engine and fuel consumption, and anything to do with those. That means checking over these parts occasionally to make sure that they are all working as they should. If you can do that, you’ll find that it’s going to make a huge difference all in all.

Beyond that, it’s wise to check the filters, such as the air and oil filters. If these are getting clogged up – as they will over time – then it means that the engine is not working to its optimum, and again that makes for a less efficient vehicle, and one that has more of an impact on the whole. So changing and cleaning those filters is really important if you want to be more conscientious about the environment – and you might be surprised at just how much of a difference it can really make.

You should also look at the tires from time to time. You might be wondering how it is that the tires make a difference to your eco credentials. Well, tires which are not pressured to the proper degree are less efficient. Plus, if they are getting low on their tread, then they are going to create more drag, and again that means poorer efficiency. So it’s really important to make sure that you are keeping a watch over your tires and doing all you can to look after them well.

If you can do those essential maintenance things, it’s going to make a huge difference to how eco-efficient your car is, whatever car you drive and however old it might be. You should also make sure that you are servicing it regularly, ideally every 10,000 miles at least, so that it is a much more well-oiled machine. All of this really does help and really does make a big difference.

Drive Economically

But a lot of the main things you can do are to do with how you drive. If you want to have less of an impact on the world, that means you need to try and use less fuel. And as it happens, there are all sorts of things you can do with regard to how you drive that will ensure it is much more economical. That, in turn, means less fuel is wasted, and that’s better for your wallet as well as the planet.

So what does economical driving look like? There are actually a few major things that you might want to remember here. For instance, you will be using less fuel if you have less weight in the vehicle, so make sure that you are always keeping it as free as possible of anything extra. If you are guilty of carrying items in the back all the time, you might want to make sure that you are not doing that. This alone is already going to make a huge difference to how much fuel you use, regardless of exactly how you drive.

After you have removed anything unnecessary from the car, you’ll then need to think about what might be causing extra drag on the vehicle. For instance, you might have bicycle racks you no longer use on the roof, in which case you’ll want to get rid of them. Or you might simply need to revisit how you pack your boot, as that can make a difference as well. Again this is a very simple thing that can be deceptively powerful, so it’s vital that you are thinking about this.

Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to think about how you drive, and how that might be influencing factors here. There are certainly more and less efficient ways to drive any vehicle, and it’s good to be aware of these. For instance, if you want to drive more economically, you should always avoid idling wherever possible. Don’t start up your engine and then just sit there. This causes emissions that are unnecessary and it wastes fuel. Instead, turn the engine on as you need to leave – and if you are stuck in traffic, then turn the engine off again.

Sometimes saving fuel is as simple as knowing where you’re going. If you plan your route, and you know your backup routes, you are much less likely to get lost. That means you won’t be burning fuel unnecessarily. This is just one reason why it’s a good idea to always plan out where you are going, even if you intend to use a sat nav or other feature to get to your destination.

In terms of how to drive, you should make sure to drive as smoothly and gently as possible. It’s through sudden acceleration and braking that you actually waste fuel, so that is something that you really need to make sure you are avoiding here. Also, if you can slow down early enough for traffic, you won’t need to brake as much, and you’ll be using much less fuel overall.

Also, if you use less of the electricity in the car, you are going to use less fuel. So this is something else you might want to think about as you drive.

As you can see, there is so much that you can do to make your driving more eco-friendly. Even just taking some of these on board could help you, so it’s something that you should certainly aim for. You will be glad you did.

One of the biggest hurdles in getting more people to adopt electric vehicles is how slowly they recharge. While EV chargers have come a long way, they still take some time to recharge, which is why we see them at places like movie theaters and supermarkets. But what if a fast-charging EV battery could change all of that?

A group of researchers working at Cornell University have made an interesting breakthrough. According to a new paper the researchers published in Joule, their charger could make it possible to charge an EV battery in just five minutes, a nice upgrade from the current EV fast chargers that take at least 30 minutes to charge up.

We’ve also seen some EV chargers that claim they can charge the battery in just five minutes. But the problem here is, the EVs and their batteries just aren’t designed for that kind of fast charging. That’s where this new fast-charging EV battery comes into play.

Image source: 7-Eleven

So how did they do it? How did the researchers make an EV charger that can withstand the heat and power needed to charge it completely in less time than it takes you to sit in the Starbucks drive-thru? Well, they started by using a metal called indium to create the anodes.

This metal is often found in touchscreens and solar panels, and it helps with faster charging and storage of electricty in batteries. The hope, of course, is that with a fast-charging EV battery, people would be able to afford more EVs because they wouldn’t need to purchase the battery with the highest range, as they could charge it up in just five minutes when they started to get low on power.

Of course, the reality of the situation is a bit more complex than that. You still need widespread adoption of EV chargers, though that is something that has definitely improved in recent years. But, if this fast-charging EV battery does take off, it could remove the long charging times, and thus allow EV makers to put in smaller batteries with less than 300 miles of range.

That could make EVs more affordable, but it also raises another question: why settle for an EV with a small battery you have to recharge more often, when you can just keep driving a gas-powered car with more range? It’s a balance that we’ll continue to see fluctuating as EVs try to find their ground. But, perhaps these new batteries could be a key tipping point for many. It’s hard to say.

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Join Vickie Leff, a palliative social worker. We’ll dive into a thought-provoking conversation about shifting the health care paradigm, where we explore the emotional toll on health care professionals, the need for sustainability, and how institutions can take more responsibility in supporting their staff.

Vickie Leff is a palliative social worker.

She discusses the KevinMD article, “Revolutionizing health care: Rethinking burnout and resilience.”

Our presenting sponsor is Nuance, a Microsoft company.

Do you spend more time on administrative tasks like clinical documentation than you do with patients? You’re not alone. Clinicians report spending up to two hours on administrative tasks for each hour of care provided. Nuance, a Microsoft company, is committed to helping clinicians restore the balance with Dragon Ambient eXperience – or DAX for short. DAX is an AI-powered, voice-enabled solution that helps physicians cut documentation time in half. DAX Copilot combines proven conversational and ambient AI with the most advanced generative AI in a mobile application that integrates directly with your existing workflows. DAX Copilot can be easily enabled within the workflow of the Dragon Medical application to bring the power of ambient technology to more clinicians faster while leveraging the proven and powerful capabilities used by over 550,000 physicians.

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Houston Community College – Coleman College for Health Sciences (HCC Coleman College) is set to introduce on-campus prerequisite courses starting in February. This initiative aims to provide health care students the convenience of completing all required courses at the same campus, eliminating the need for transfers when entering specialized programs.

Dr. Phillip Nicotera, President of HCC Coleman College, emphasizes the positive impact of these additional course offerings on students.

“Until now, our students navigated health science courses at HCC Coleman College while pursuing prerequisite courses like English and Biology at another HCC campus or college,” said Nicotera. “With this new development, students can embark on and conclude their educational journey in the same location. The advantage of starting and ending at Coleman lies in the continuity of having the same advisors throughout, fostering stronger relationships with the staff and faculty committed to their success.”

Dr. Jeff Gricar, Dean of Health Sciences at HCC Coleman College, shares Nicotera’s excitement for the expanded opportunities.

“We’re thrilled to provide students the chance to complete prerequisite courses at Coleman,” said Gricar. “These courses establish the foundational knowledge crucial for success in their chosen healthcare field.”

For the Late Start semester beginning on Feb. 12, the following courses will be available:

• ENGL 1301 – Composition I

• ENGL 1302 – Composition II

• HUMA 1301 – Introduction to Humanities

• MATH 1342 – Elementary Statistical Methods

• PHIL 2306 – Introduction to Ethics

• PSYC 2301 – General Psychology

Gricar also mentions plans to introduce additional prerequisite courses in the upcoming summer semester, providing students with a broader range of options for their educational journey at HCC Coleman College.

Source: VCG / Getty

Disney research fellow and imagineer Lanny Smoot was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The esteemed honor spotlights his important contributions to the global brand’s most beloved attractions.

The Disney Parks Blog mentions that Smoot is the first Disney Imagineer to receive the prestigious honor and the second person at the Walt Disney Company inducted into the institution. The first was Walt Disney, honored posthumously in 2000 for inventing the multi-plane camera to produce modern animation.

Smoot has been with Disney Experiences for an impressive 45-year stint. During his tenure, he has held several positions such as a theatrical technology creator, inventor, electrical engineer, scientist and researcher. His journey led him to create over 100 patents, with 74 of them invented during his impactful 25-year career at the Walt Disney Company.

According to the Parks statement, Smoot has been instrumental in pioneering special effects and technical marvels at Disney theme parks globally. His contributions include Madame Leota’s ability to float in the Séance Room at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, the cutting-edge extendable lightsaber featured in Disney Live Entertainment and the Magic Playfloor interactive game experience on Disney’s Cruise Line.

This isn’t Smoot’s first honor. He has received with countless awards with the Walt Disney Company and Disney Experiences. His passion for innovation and technology began after earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering at Columbia University. He later worked for Bells Lab and Bells Communication Research, where he specialized in the early development of video-on-demand technology, video conferencing and specialized television systems.

Smoot was excited to be recognized by the Walt Disney Company alongside a few of his “childhood heroes.”

“As a life-long inventor, I am excited, delighted, and humbled to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame,” Smoot said in a statement. “To be included alongside my childhood hero, Thomas Edison, and my lifelong role model, Jim West — the inventor of the electret microphone, is both exciting and humbling. And as someone who’s had the privilege of working at The Walt Disney Company, it’s especially meaningful to know that Walt Disney himself is also an inductee.”

The National Inventors Hall of Fame was held on Wednesday, Jan. 24 at Walt Disney Imagineering’s campus in Glendale, California.

Congrats to the legendary Lanny Smoot!

Amanda Nizam, MD, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Cleveland Clinic, discusses findings from the retrospective UNITE study of enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev) following switch maintenance avelumab (Bavencio) in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma who were responsive to initial platinum-based chemotherapy.

Among evaluable patients (n = 41), the overall response rate (ORR) was 54%. In the intention-to-treat population (n = 49), the ORR was 45%. Direct comparisons between these findings and those from the phase 3 EV-301 trial (NCT03474107) are not possible because EV-301 included patients who were not responsive to platinum-based chemotherapy, Nizam says. However, in EV-301, which evaluated enfortumab vedotin vs chemotherapy in patients with previously treated advanced urothelial carcinoma, the ORR with enfortumab vedotin was 41.32% (95% CI, 35.57%-47.25%).

In UNITE, the median progression-free survival (PFS) from the start of enfortumab vedotin therapy was 7.0 months (95% CI, 5.8-13.3), which is similar to the median PFS with enfortumab vedotin in EV-301 of 5.55 months (95% CI, 5.32-6.28), Nizam notes. Furthermore, the median overall survival (OS) from the start of enfortumab vedotin therapy was 13.3 months (95% CI, 10.8-not reached), which was also similar to the median OS with enfortumab vedotin in EV-301, which was 12.91 months (95% CI, 11.01-14.92), Nizam explains.

In UNITE, the median OS from the start of platinum-based chemotherapy was 22.5 months, Nizam says, noting that this finding was observed as an exploratory end point because it was not reported in EV-301. Although this median OS seems relatively short, the UNITE registry included many patients who were eligible to receive enfortumab vedotin because they experienced short times to progression on maintenance avelumab, according to Nizam. Thus, patients in this registry are likely to have a lower median time on maintenance avelumab than what may be observed in the real world, Nizam says.

For instance, in the phase 3 JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial (NCT02603432) of maintenance avelumab in patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, the median time on avelumab was 24.9 weeks (range, 2.0-159.9). In UNITE, the median time on maintenance avelumab was 3.5 months (range, 0.2-22.3), which contributed to the shorter median OS from the start of platinum-based chemotherapy, Nizam explains.

Overall, the findings from UNITE were consistent with those from EV-301, although the designs of these trials prevent direct comparisons, Nizam emphasizes. However, these findings support the use of enfortumab vedotin following platinum-based chemotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors in patients with platinum-responsive disease, Nizam concludes.

Want to know more about the power of AI? Interested in coding, machine learning and neural networks? while True: learn () releases on Xbox to teach you that and more. 

AI and machine learning

Available to purchase and download right now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S is while True: learn (). Funky name aside, this is a puzzler that builds in a whole ton of simulation for good measure, as you play the life of a coder attempting to solve a host of tricky puzzles. Do so and fortunes will be yours. Fail – and it’ll prove once and for all that your cat is cleverer than you. 

Priced at £12.49, while True: learn () promises to teach you everything you could ever want to know about AI and machine learning. A game that should suit many, if numbers and sequences are your bag, you’ll probably want to get involved. 

But the team behind it – Luden.io – hope that it’ll find a place in the heart of many a gamer. In fact, the Xbox Store page specifically points to while True: learn () being suitable for those who want to learn about new technologies. Or parents and teachers looking to infuse some knowledge into a child. Or programmers hunting new concepts. Or even just folk who are looking to keep their brain engaged, hoping to prove themselves better than their kitty. 

Key features

while True: learn () on Xbox plays host to a ton of key features too. Getting eyes on those certainly helps to sell a purchase of the game a little more…

• Create a cat-to-human translator
• Enjoy visual programming puzzles
• Playthrough the real tech history
• Earn a fortune as a startup CTO
• From puzzles to learning
• Improve logical thinking skills
• Warm up your brain
• Fun intro to Machine learning
• Buy cat outfits and gadgets

Buy now and enjoy while True: learn () on Xbox

Want to get involved in while True: learn ()? You’ll find it on the Xbox Store right now, playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. You’ll also find the game on Steam where it’s been since 2019, picking up some decent reviews in the process.

Let us know what while True: learn () teaches you. The comments are below. 

while True: learn () Game Description

You’re a machine learning specialist who makes neural networks but your cat seems to be better at it. Now you must solve puzzles to build a cat-to-human translation system (who knows what else this cat is capable of!). Earn a fortune, buy kickass cat outfits, learn how machine learning really works!