Registration is now open for the Society of Interventional Radiology's "Image-guided Interventional Oncology (IO) Therapies" Webinar, which will provide the latest updates on percutaneous and transcatheter treatment of liver tumors, kidney tumor ablation and lung tumor ablation. [More]

Among eligible Medicare beneficiaries, increased use of carotid arterial stenting (CAS) procedures to treat carotid stenosis-the narrowing of the carotid artery-is associated with higher rates of mortality and adverse clinical outcomes, including heart attack and stroke, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. [More]

Since her teens, Jennifer Jablon had watched family members deal with breast cancer during their 40s, 50s, and 60s. She wondered whether it would be her fate too. [More]

A study of 2,203 cardiac surgery patients from Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers nationwide revealed that coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG) completed "off-pump," meaning without a heart-lung machine, had no advantages in patient outcomes compared to the traditional "on-pump" procedure. [More]

According to a study presented November 4, 2009, at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), a shortened, more intensive course of radiation given to the whole breast, along with an extra dose of radiation given to the surgical bed of the tumor (concomitant boost), has been shown to result in excellent local control at a median follow up of two years after treatment with no significant sides effects. [More]

After doctors told her that John, her gravely ill husband of 29 years, was too high of a risk for a lung transplant, Ann Lograsso lay next to him in his hospital bed and together the pair wept. [More]

A recent review in Faculty of 1000 Medicine Reports, a publication in which clinicians highlight advances in medical practice, suggests regional pain relief could be used during abdominal surgery. In this review, Michael Schaefer recommends a new approach that can be performed without the need for general anaesthetics. [More]

Cardiologists at the University of Illinois Medical Center are using a new heart pump that can be inserted without the need for surgery and allows them to treat high-risk patients with a procedure to unblock their heart arteries. [More]

Washington, DC-A surgeon now at Children's National Medical Center and his colleagues from New York University have found laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (Lap band) to improve the health of morbidly obese adolescents. [More]

The effectiveness of a screening colonoscopy may depend on the time of day it is performed. According to a new UCLA study, early-morning colonoscopies yielded more polyps per patient than later screenings, and fewer polyps were found hour by hour as the day progressed. [More]

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), a radiation therapy procedure pioneered at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) that precisely delivers a large dose of radiation to tumors, effectively controls pain in patients with cancer that has spread to the spine, according to researchers from UPCI. [More]

When fractured bones fail to heal, a serious complication referred to as "nonunion" can develop. This occurs when the process of bone healing is interrupted or stalled. According to a new study published in the November 2009 issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS), certain cases involving nonunions respond very well to shock-wave therapy. Researchers say this non-invasive treatment is equally effective as surgery when it comes to healing the bone. [More]

Radiation dose delivered to the prostate and nearby organs in every brachytherapy procedure should be carefully analyzed using post-implant CT or MRI and uniformly documented in every patient, according to a new guideline co-authored by Yan Yu, Ph.D., director of Medical Physics in the department of Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University. [More]

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) offers a less invasive way to eliminate tremors caused by Parkinson's disease and essential tremor than deep brain stimulation (DBS) and radiofrequency (RF) treatments, and is as effective, according to a long-term study presented November 2, 2009, at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). [More]

ATS Medical, Inc., manufacturer and marketer of state-of-the-art cardiac surgery products and services, announced the first human robot assisted endoscopic aortic valve replacement using the daVinci® Surgical System from Intuitive Surgical to implant the ATS 3f® Aortic Bioprosthesis. The procedure was performed by Allen Raczkowski, M.D., at Banner Baywood Health Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. [More]