Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Does a non-linear mean reverting process characterize real GDP movements?

Unit root tests, Non-linear models, Real GDP, C22, E1,

Is real GDP per capita a stationary process? Smooth transitions, nonlinear trends and unit root testing

Real GDP per capita, Unit root tests, Persistence, Nonlinearities, Smooth transitions, C22, E31, E32,

A Landscape of Pharmacogenomic Interactions in Cancer.

Systematic studies of cancer genomes have provided unprecedented insights into the molecular nature of cancer. Using this information to guide the development and application of therapies in the clinic is challenging. Here, we report how cancer-driven alterations identified in 11,289 tumors from 29 tissues (integrating somatic mutations, copy number alterations, DNA methylation, and gene expression) can be mapped onto 1,001 molecularly annotated human cancer cell lines and correlated with sensitivity to 265 drugs. We find that cell lines faithfully recapitulate oncogenic alterations identified in tumors, find that many of these associate with drug sensitivity/resistance, and highlight the importance of tissue lineage in mediating drug response. Logic-based modeling uncovers combinations of alterations that sensitize to drugs, while machine learning demonstrates the relative importance of different data types in predicting drug response. Our analysis and datasets are rich resources to link genotypes with cellular phenotypes and to identify therapeutic options for selected cancer sub-populations.This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust (086375 and 102696). F.I. was supported by the European Bioinformatics Institute and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute post-doctoral (ESPOD) program. T.A.K. was supported by the National Cancer Institute (U24CA143835) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. D.T. was supported by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union (FP7/2007-2013; 600388) and the Agency of Competitiveness for Companies of the Government of Catalonia (ACCIO´ ). N.L.-B. was supported by La Fundacio ´ la Marato´ de TV3. M.E. was funded by the European Research Council (268626), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (SAF2011-22803), the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII) under the Integrated Project of Excellence (PIE13/00022), the Spanish Cancer Research Network (RD12/0036/0039), the Health and Science Departments of the Catalan Government Generalitat de Catalunya 2014-SGR 633, and the Cellex Foundation. U.M. was supported by a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellowship. We thank Aiqing He for expression data and Ilya Shmulevich for assistance with the LOBICO framework. We thank P. Campbell, M. Ranzani, J. Brammeld, M. Petljak, F. Behan, C. Alsinet Armengol, H. Francies, V. Grinkevich, and A. ‘‘Lilla’’ Mupo for useful comments. P.R.-M., H.C., and H.d.S. are employees and shareholders of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Research in the M.J.G. lab is supported in part with funding from AstraZeneca