Mardi Chapman

The New England Journal of Medicine has retracted the 2021 ADVOCATE trial of avacopan (Tavneos, Amgen) after US regulators found data discrepancies in nine patients. Two academic authors of the trial requested the retraction, which followed a Food and Drug Administration investigation into the drug for ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV).

The use of proton pump inhibitors and antibiotics appears to attenuate the benefit of immunotherapy and adversely impact survival in patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC. Findings from a study published in Lancet Oncology [link here] suggest “microbiome–immunotherapy interactions” need to be further investigated. “The future work should focus on pragmatic antibiotic stewardship and on identifying patients in whom alternative management strategies might be reasonable,” it said.

Dr Jessica Day is a rheumatologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Scientific Team Leader at WEHI. She is an NHMRC Investigator with clinical and academic expertise in myositis and is a 2026 recipient of an ARA / Arthritis Australia Project Grant to advance biomarker discovery and therapeutic profiling in inclusion body myositis. Her research, including a clinical trial of a new treatment, is also supported by a collaboration with the Snow Centre for Immune Health.