The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 21 of the world's leading cancer centers, has collaborated with the Discovery Health Channel to produce a program profiling three patients with metastatic breast cancer and their healthcare team as they customize each patient's treatment regimen to their individual tumor type and health status. [More]

Short-term follow-up is a reasonable alternative to invasive biopsy of palpable (capable of being touched or felt) breast lesions with benign imaging features, particularly in younger women with probable fibroadenoma (non-cancerous tumors that often occur in women during their reproductive years), according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. [More]

A simple blood test corresponding to the follicular phase (days 3-14) of a normal menstrual cycle can aid in optimal scheduling of breast MRI exams in premenopausal women with irregular cycles - possibly reducing the number of repeat scans and non-diagnostic tests patients experience and providing clearer images on which doctors make their recommendations, according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. [More]

In women with lower urinary tract symptoms, a medical imaging technique called dynamic MRI allows clinicians to diagnose pelvic organ prolapse - a condition that often goes undiagnosed on static MRI and at physical examination, according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. [More]

Using highly precise measurements of plasma lipoprotein concentrations determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), researchers led by Daniel Chasman at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, the Framingham Heart Study in Framingham, and the PROCARDIS consortium in Stockholm, Sweden and Oxford, England performed genetic association analysis across the whole genome among 17,296 women of European ancestry from the Women's Genome Health Study. [More]

The addition of a "genetic sonogram" maximizes the accuracy of non-invasive testing for Down syndrome, said a Baylor College of Medicine researcher who was lead author of a landmark study in the current issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. [More]

Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz writes about the so-called "botax." [More]

The debate on how to select patients who will respond best to costly drug treatments for aggressive breast cancer now favors fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to measure the HER-2 receptor found in human breast tumors, according to a leading pathologist presenting at the Association for Molecular Pathology annual meeting. [More]

New guidelines on mammograms and pap smears set off a fierce debate. [More]

"The White House is on a collision course with Catholic bishops in an intractable dispute over abortion that could blow up the fragile political coalition behind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul," the Associated Press reports. [More]

The Associated Press: "The White House and Senate Democrats have turned to a proposal to tax breast implants, tummy tucks, wrinkle-smoothing injections and other procedures as they search for ways to pay for costly health care overhaul plans." The Senate health bill, which was unveiled Wednesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada "would slap a 5 percent excise tax on elective cosmetic surgeries and procedures to help pay for expanding coverage to the uninsured." [More]

Urban Institute: Progress Enrolling Children in Medicaid/CHIP: Who Is Left And What Are The Prospects For Covering More Children? - This policy brief examines the characteristics of the estimated 5 million uninsured children who are eligible for CHIP/Medicaid in 2007 (64 percent of all uninsured children; 88 percent of all low-income uninsured children), but not enrolled. [More]

Merck & Co., Inc. today announced the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has recommended approval of ELONVA® (corifollitropin alfa injection) as a treatment in controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in combination with a GnRH antagonist for the development of multiple follicles in women participating in an assisted reproductive technology (ART) program. [More]

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is to be commended for publicly stating the government panel opposing mammograms is "an outside independent panel of doctors and scientists who ... do not set federal policy and ... don't determine what services are covered by the federal government." [More]

This week the nation received the 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on breast cancer screenings. The National Medical Association (NMA) believes African American women, in consultation with their physician, should continue the practice of routine mammography screening at age 40 or earlier depending upon the risk factors. [More]