»

• Read more
• 142 reads

A company called Vermillion is crowing about a poster released at the recent SGO meeting. They are developing an ovarian cancer screening test they call OvaCalc. We get very emotional here at InteractMD.com over ovarian cancer screening because of the disproportionately high burden this disease places on younger women. OvaSure seemed to self-destruct over consternation from the FDA...it'll come back from the dead if it really is a good test.

JNCI is reporting this week a study that questions the safety of mammograms in young women at high risk for breast cancer. Carriers of the BRCA gene mutation are at very high risk for breast cancer and routinely are offered mammographic screening from a young age. The problem is that mammograms use radiation and there are risks of taking radiation exposures on a routine basis. The big question is where does the risk of radiation-induced breast cancer fall to the point where mammo is of greater benefit than harm.

Where is the thyroid gland and what is it’s function? The thyroid gland is shaped like a butterfly and sits just below the voice box and in front of the trachea (wind-pipe). It resides under thin muscle layers in the midline central neck just above the sternum and moves with swallowing as it is attached to the trachea. The thyroid gland is a central organ in the body that secretes thyroid hormones and as such regulates our body’s metabolism energy level and various other functions.

This is an unbelievable story but evidently published today in PNAS a reputable journal. Scientists at IBM have evidently solved the resolution problem with MRI making it 100 million times higher resolution Regular TV: 485 x 450 resolution High Definition: 1920 x 1080 resolution So the difference between regular TV and High-Def is about a factor of 3. The difference between regular MRI and "magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM)" detailed in the article is 100 MILLION!

A report from a radiological meeting continues the encouraging news we've heard lately about nuclear scans for breast cancer so-called Molecular Breast Imaging. A series of 145 breast cancer patients underwent the nuclear study 45 additional lesions were biopsied for 19 new cancers. All 145 women had a negative mammogram for the additional tumors. The accompanying press article contains the usual justifications of why nuclear scanning is better than other technologies including cost and flexibility in diabetics.

A recent study carried out at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN reveals that small breast tumors of less than 2 cm in size can easily be detected by a dual-headed gamma camera set up for molecular breast imaging (MBI). The study is published in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. Lead author of the study Carrie B. Hruska MD and his colleagues have developed a dual-head MBI system using 2 cadmium zinc telluride detectors to concurrently attain opposing breast views and reduce lesion-to-detector distance.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurobehavioral developmental disorder and a condition which is mostly found in preschool and early school-age children. This disorder includes traits of hyperactivity impulsivity or distraction where children are unable to control their behavior or pay attention to common tasks. It is estimated that approximately 2 million children in the United States have ADHD. For example it is estimated that in a classroom of 25 to 30 children it is probable that at least one will have ADHD.

A study expected to be unveiled at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Breast Cancer Symposium says that women who receive an MRI after an initial diagnosis of breast cancer are delaying their treatment and are more likely to require a mastectomy rather than some other type of breast conserving surgical intervention. In spite of this very clear evidence regarding the benefits of MRI the authors of the study say that the use of the MRI is definitely on the rise. "There was no rhyme or reason as to when MRIs are being used " said the author of the study Dr. Richard J.

Use of breast MRI prior to cancer surgery questioned