Study halted; common therapy to prevent miscarriage isn't helpful

A widely used and expensive therapy that is supposed to prevent miscarriage doesn't work, a major study shows. The Recurrent Miscarriage Study (REMIS) found that women treated with immunotherapy had more and later miscarriages than those not receiving the treatment.

The findings appeared in the July 31 issue of The Lancet. "They show that mononuclear-cell immunization ought not to be used to treat miscarriage," said James R. Schreiber, M.D., professor and head of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine.

Thirteen years ago, Schreiber and Carole Ober, Ph.D., lead author of the paper and professor of human genetics and of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago, became concerned that women were being subjected to an untested and expensive therapy that might have untoward effects. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, they organized the gold standard of clinical trials a prospective, randomized, double-blinded study. "Physicians have to be willing to question what they do through very good clinical research," said Randall R. Odem, M.D., associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and head of the medical school's Division of Reproductive Endocrinology. Odem also played a major role in the study.

Mononuclear-cell immunization also called lymphocyte immunization first was tried in humans in 1978. It now is offered in private doctors' offices and medical centers throughout the world and costs many thousands of dollars.

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Apply now for cancer research grants

Applications now are being accepted for awards from the University's American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant Committee (ACS-IRG). Applications are due by Sept. 15.

The program provides seed money for new projects initiated by junior faculty members.

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Drug treatment might help patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms

A School of Medicine pilot study suggests that doxycycline, an inexpensive and safe antibiotic, might help patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms, which kill at least 15,000 Americans each year. These aneurysms are weak areas in the wall of the body's main artery. At present, only surgery can prevent them from growing to the size at which they rupture and cause sudden death.

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