In the Trial to Assess the Use of the Cypher Stent in Acute Myocardial Infarction Treated with Balloon Angioplasty (TYPHOON), patients with an acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation underwent percutaneous coronary intervention with either a sirolimus-eluting stent or an uncoated stent. The use of the sirolimus-eluting stent was associated with significant reductions in the rate of target-vessel failure and the severity of in-stent late luminal loss.

The Paclitaxel-Eluting Stent versus Conventional Stent in Myocardial Infarction with ST-Segment Elevation (PASSION) trial compared the use of paclitaxel-eluting stents with uncoated stents for primary percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation. Although the paclitaxel-eluting stent was associated with a trend toward fewer serious adverse cardiac events, the trend was not significant.

Preoperative radiotherapy is standard in the treatment of rectal cancer. This study showed that the addition of fluorouracil-based chemotherapy to preoperative radiotherapy had no significant effect on the survival of patients with resectable rectal cancer. Chemotherapy, however, did improve local control of the cancer.

In this proof-of-concept study, fingolimod, an oral immunomodulating agent, reduced lesions detected on magnetic resonance imaging and the rate of clinical relapse among patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. Adverse events associated with fingolimod included elevations in liver enzyme levels, a reduction in the heart rate, a decrease in forced expiratory flow, and one case of posterior reversible encephalopathy.