Biopsy News and Research

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Biopsy is the removal of cells or tissues for examination by a pathologist. The pathologist may study the tissue under a microscope or perform other tests on the cells or tissue. There are many different types of biopsy procedures. The most common types include: (1) incisional biopsy, in which only a sample of tissue is removed; (2) excisional biopsy, in which an entire lump or suspicious area is removed; and (3) needle biopsy, in which a sample of tissue or fluid is removed with a needle. When a wide needle is used, the procedure is called a core biopsy. When a thin needle is used, the procedure is called a fine-needle aspiration biopsy.

Marrow aspiration predicts smoldering multiple myeloma progression

Smoldering multiple myeloma patients with bone marrow plasma cell involvement should be treated immediately, say Italian researchers who found these patients are at greatest risk for symptomatic disease.

18 Jul 2012

Wake Forest, UCSD develop new genetic test for prostate cancer

Karim Kader, MD, PhD, associate clinical professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, together with a team of researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, have developed a genetic test to predict a man's risk for prostate cancer. Use of the test could reduce the need for repeat biopsies in men who have had a negative biopsy.

18 Jul 2012

WCMC receives NHLBI grant to study smoking-induced COPD

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College were awarded a $6.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for a five-year investigation into metabolic changes occurring within airway epithelial cells in the lungs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients caused by cigarette smoking. In addition, researchers aim to identify which cigarette smokers are at highest risk of developing COPD as well as novel biomarkers to assist in the development of new therapeutic treatments for the disease.

17 Jul 2012

Treatment deteriorates giant cell arteritis imaging sensitivity

Patients with suspected giant cell arteritis should undergo imaging before or as soon as possible after treatment has started to minimize the chance of a false–negative result, advise German researchers.

16 Jul 2012

Body rids itself of excess copper through urine: New study

Scientists have long known that the body rids itself of excess copper and various other minerals by collecting them in the liver and excreting them through the liver's bile. However, a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers and published June 22 in PLoS One suggests that when this route is impaired there's another exit route just for copper: A molecule sequesters only that mineral and routes it from the body through urine.

14 Jul 2012

TGen's customized procedure produces high amounts of exosomes for treatment of CKD

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have developed a method of isolating biospecimens that could lead to a less costly, less invasive and more accurate way of diagnosing chronic kidney disease, or CKD.

12 Jul 2012

New assay can identify rare cancerous cells within mixed populations

Rare cells can be identified within mixed cell populations with near perfect accuracy using a detection technique devised by research teams led by Robert Wieder, MD, PhD, at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School and Rajan Kumar, MD, PhD, at Genome Data Systems in Hamilton, N.J. This technique may facilitate cancer diagnosis, which often relies on the detection of rare cancerous cells in tiny amounts of biopsy tissue or fluid.

12 Jul 2012

Courtagen launches nucSEEKPDx assay

Courtagen Life Sciences, Inc., a privately held life sciences company that provides innovative proteomic and genomic products and services to the life sciences industry, today announced the expansion of their genetic test menu. The new genetic test, nucSEEKPDx, will sequence approximately 1,100 nuclear genes constituting the mitochondrial exome, which encodes the vast majority of proteins found in the mitochondrion. This test is by far the most comprehensive test on the market for the management of mitochondrial disorders.

11 Jul 2012

Sectioning of bone as a specialist histology specimen

The significance of histological examination in the classification and diagnosis of clinical conditions is reliant on the expertise of the histology laboratory in managing the wide spectrum of specimen types submitted for analysis.

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 9 Jul 2012

NewYork-Presbyterian/WCMC first in N.Y. City to offer INTRABEAM radiotherapy

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center is the first and only hospital in the five boroughs of New York City to offer women with early stage breast cancer INTRABEAM radiotherapy, an innovative radiation treatment delivered in a single dose at the time of surgery.

6 Jul 2012

Single dose breast cancer treatment helps forego 6-7 week radiation regimen

5 Jul 2012

Italy's first successful pregnancy and delivery following transplantation of ovarian tissue

Although the first successful preservation of fertility from the freezing, thawing and grafting of ovarian tissue was reported eight years ago, the technique has remained experimental and confined to a few specialist centres. Now, with the announcement of a first pregnancy (and subsequent live birth) in Italy following the transplantation of ovarian tissue, there are indications that fertility preservation is moving into the mainstream of reproductive medicine and into a greater number of centres.

4 Jul 2012

Under-performance of small bowel biopsy a major reason behind underdiagnosis of celiac disease

Under-performance of small bowel biopsy during endoscopy may be a major reason that celiac disease remains underdiagnosed in the United States, according to a new study published online recently in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Investigators at the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) found that the rate of small bowel biopsy is low in this country.

30 Jun 2012

Rate of small bowel biopsy is low in the U.S.

30 Jun 2012

Researchers create 'Huntington's disease in a dish' to enable search for treatment

Johns Hopkins researchers, working with an international consortium, say they have generated stem cells from skin cells from a person with a severe, early-onset form of Huntington's disease (HD), and turned them into neurons that degenerate just like those affected by the fatal inherited disorder.

29 Jun 2012

UCLA Heart Transplant Program performs 2,000th heart transplant surgery

The UCLA Heart Transplant Program performed its 2,000th heart transplant surgery earlier this month, becoming the first program in the western United States and only the second in the world to achieve this remarkable milestone.

28 Jun 2012

New approach improves survival in patients with inoperable complex pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Investigators at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, have reported on a new approach to treating previously inoperable complex pancreatic adenocarcinoma that has significantly increased long-term survival for some patients.

27 Jun 2012

Beckman Coulter announces PMA from FDA for Prostate Health Index

Beckman Coulter, Inc., the leader in prostate cancer diagnostics, announces Premarket Approval (PMA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Prostate Health Index (phi), a simple, non-invasive blood test that is 2.5-times more specific in detecting prostate cancer than PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in patients with PSA values in the 4-10 ng/mL range and is proven to reduce the number of prostate biopsies.

From Beckman Coulter Diagnostics 26 Jun 2012

New test can identify low-risk thyroid nodules and reduce unnecessary surgeries

A new test can be used to identify low-risk thyroid nodules, reducing unnecessary surgeries for people with thyroid nodules that have indeterminate results after biopsy. The results of the multi-center trial, which includes researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, appear online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

25 Jun 2012

WCMC researchers devise innovative boxer-like strategy to fight multiple myeloma

Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have devised an innovative boxer-like strategy, based on the serial use of two anti-cancer drugs, to deliver a one-two punch to first weaken the defenses of multiple myeloma and then deliver the final knock-out punch to win the fight.

23 Jun 2012