This week, we feature new research on polymyalgia rheumatica, hypercholesterolemia, prostate cancer, and multiple myeloma. We review evidence-based strategies for tobacco cessation, and follow a case of a woman with nausea, dizziness, and metabolic acidosis. We discuss recent advances in gene editing for rare metabolic diseases. Perspectives address HIV care, health care quality, medical ethics, and finding resilience in the face of serious illness.

NEJM This Week — August 13, 2026

NEJM This Week

Welcome to NEJM This Week. I'm Dr. Lisa Johnson. This week, we feature new research on polymyalgia rheumatica, hypercholesterolemia, prostate cancer, and multiple myeloma. We review evidence-based strategies for tobacco cessation and follow a case of a woman with nausea, dizziness, and metabolic acidosis. We discuss recent advances in gene editing for rare metabolic diseases.

Perspectives address HIV care, health care quality, medical ethics, and finding resilience in the face of serious illness. Phase 3 Trial of Secukinumab in Polymyalgia Rheumatica by John Stone from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and co-authors.

Polymyalgia rheumatica is a common inflammatory disease characterized by pain and stiffness in the shoulders and hips. Glucocorticoids are the first-line treatment, but relapses and glucocorticoid-related toxic effects are common, which underscores the need for effective alternatives.

Secukinumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody that selectively inhibits interleukin-17A. In this study, 381 patients with recently relapsed polymyalgia rheumatica were randomly assigned to receive

Secukinumab at a dose of 300 mg or 150 mg or placebo for 52 weeks. Patients in all the groups also received prednisone on a tapering schedule for 24 weeks. Treatment with Secukinumab plus a 24-week glucocorticoid taper

resulted in a higher percentage of patients with remission and with lower cumulative glucocorticoid doses than with placebo and a glucocorticoid taper. Infections and hypersensitivity reactions were more common in the Secukinumab groups than in the placebo group, but the incidence of serious infections was similar in both Secukinumab groups and the placebo group. No serious hypersensitivity

reactions were reported. Yoshia Tanaka from the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakushu, Japan, writes in an editorial that the current report and the recent Phase 3 GC-CAPTAN trial, which assessed Secukinumab treatment in patients with new-onset or recurrent giant cell arteritis,

NEJM This Week — August 13, 2026

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

NEJM This Week — August 13, 2026

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.