The haemoglobin that is 'just normal' is not where mortality is lowest

The edition in brief

Today's cross-specialty desk opens with a UK cohort of 502,188 adults followed a median 13.6 years, in which all-cause mortality was U-shaped against haemoglobin and lowest 1 to 3 g/dL above the 1959 WHO anaemia thresholds; those just 0 to 1 g/dL above threshold had a 10-year mortality of 5.3% against 4.5% in the reference group. The authors are explicit that these are hypothesis-generating and should not redefine thresholds. MATTERHORN, a phase 3 trial in 948 patients across 20 countries, reports that perioperative durvalumab added to FLOT chemotherapy improved overall survival in resectable gastric and gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (hazard ratio 0.78, 95% CI 0.63-0.96). Two replicate phase 3 trials of tozorakimab, an interleukin-33 antibody, reduced annualised moderate or severe COPD exacerbations by about 30% with no eosinophil entry criterion. A target trial emulation of 64,036 waitlisted European dialysis patients finds standard-criteria kidney transplantation beats continued dialysis at every age, while the benefit of expanded-criteria donation after circulatory death disappears by 75. A pearl covers the handover of a patient discharged on a short antibiotic course. The edition closes with RESHAP-ED, a 1,475-patient randomised trial in which physiotherapist-led emergency care for uncomplicated musculoskeletal presentations cut length of stay by a full hour at lower cost and no excess harm.