New Test May Predict Risk of Breast Cancer Metastasis

Researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center have created a test that could help doctors identify which breast cancer patients need aggressive therapy. The study, published in the online version of Clinical Cancer Research, could prevent many women from undergoing...

Recommended Reading: Navigating the Sea Change

After 40-plus years since the biotechnology industry began, it finally turned a profit in 2008. Yet this “good news” story has been overshadowed by the events that besieged the industry in the final four months of the year. With life sciences leaders struggling to make sense of this turbulent period,...

Two Studies Cast Doubt On Common Prostate Cancer Test

A common prostate-cancer screening test may be largely ineffective, according to two new studies. Scientists in the U.S. and Europe found that the PSA blood test saves few lives and leads to unnecessary treatments for large numbers of men. The test, which measures a protein released by prostate cells, is...

[Video Profile] eCardio Diagnostics

Identifying a cardiac arrhythmia is an important first step in diagnosing a potentially life-threatening heart condition. Texas-based eCardio Diagnostics, a leading provider of digital holter monitors, seeks to improve the speed and accuracy of this process. Their monitors contain an algorithm that...

State of the Art: Anti-Adhesion Barriers

Many patients are concerned about the external scars that form following surgical procedures, but a much greater risk can come from internal scarring. Adhesions are a type of post-surgical scar tissue that forms between two internal organs or surfaces that are normally separated. For example, in open-heart...

Two Studies Show Potential for Treating Drug-Resistant TB

Tuberculosis, or TB, is one of the world’s most widespread lethal diseases, killing someone every 20 seconds. An estimated one-third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis. Current medications for TB must be taken for six months, but many patients stop before they’ve completed the full...

The Medical Home: Babysitting the Baby Before it’s Born

Israel-based Biopad has developed a device to monitor a baby’s kicking inside the womb, reports Israel21c. The product was developed to help prevent stillbirths, which are 10 times more likely than deaths resulting from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and amount to about 30,000 of all births each...

In Septic Shock: Are We in the Early Stages of a Sepsis Epidemic?

Few people outside the medical profession have even heard of Sepsis, the third most common cause of death for hospitalized patients in the developed world, behind heart disease and cancer. 30% of the 1 million people afflicted each year die because a bacterial infection, originating anywhere in the body, has...