In this clinical trial involving patients with atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure, rhythm control (to maintain sinus rhythm) and rate control (to control the ventricular rate in atrial fibrillation) were compared. The two strategies were nearly identical with respect to all clinical outcomes. Thus, the simpler approach, rate control, should be considered the treatment of choice in such patients.

Dronedarone is a class III antiarrhythmic drug that has efficacy as a treatment for atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmias. In this clinical trial involving patients with severe heart failure, however, dronedarone was found to increase overall mortality, raising serious concern about the safety of this drug in patients with advanced heart failure.

In a study of 406 patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1, 96 had severe electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities when first evaluated. During an average of 5.7 years of follow-up, there were 81 deaths, of which 27 were sudden. The presence of a severe ECG abnormality at baseline was an independent predictor of sudden death (relative risk, 3.3).

A patient with refractory metastatic melanoma had a complete remission after an infusion of cells from an in vitro–generated clone of autologous CD4+ T cells with specificity for the melanoma-associated NY-ESO-1 antigen.

This review is a comprehensive account of the current status of tumor immunology, beginning with the identification of human tumor antigens and ending with a summary of clinical applications of what we know about the immunology of tumors.

A 63-year-old HIV-positive man was referred to this hospital for management of a cutaneous Merkel-cell carcinoma on the forehead that metastasized to the ipsilateral preauricular and cervical lymph nodes. A treatment plan was established.

Two Food and Drug Administration advisory committees recently voted not to recommend approval of over-the-counter sales of lovastatin. This article reviews the rationale behind the committees' recommendations and discusses the risks and benefits of nonprescription sales of statins and other medications for asymptomatic conditions.

Mice that undergo ablation of a gene encoding a receptor of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-) or treatment with an antibody that binds TNF- are partially protected against induced colitis and colitis-associated colon cancer.