Results of two studies suggest that a new, investigational colorectal cancer screening test developed in collaboration between Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Exact Sciences of Madison, Wis., is highly accurate and significantly more sensitive than other noninvasive tests at detecting precancerous tumors and early-stage cancer, according to a statement issued Jan. 18 by Mayo Clinic.

An analysis of clinical trial results performed by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) demonstrated that a chromosomal abnormality has definitive prognostic and predictive value for managing the treatment of adult patients with pure and mixed anaplastic oligodendrogliomas. "These are exciting and practice-changing results," said Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD, RTOG group chair and executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, in a statement.

Most programs in the two broad categories of value-based payment demonstrations and disease management and care coordination demonstrations from the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have not reduced Medicare spending, according to a January issue brief from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Breast cancer patients aged 50 or younger experience psychosocial and menopause-related concerns, weight gain and infertility, according to a literature review published Jan. 20 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The researchers called for additional studies and targeted interventions to address these symptoms and concerns.

The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services will host a series of webinars dedicated to helping healthcare organizations understand bundled payment programs as part of its accelerated development learning session series.

Software developed by researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was able to separate malignancy from background tissue on digital pathology slides, according to a paper published in the January issue of Analytical Cellular Pathology.

Obesity is clearly associated with an increase in cancer morbidity, but its correlation with screening rates is more complicated. Obesity has been linked to higher rates of some cancer screenings, such as prostate cancer, and associated with lower rates of others, such as cervical cancer screening, according to a review of published literature appearing in the January issue of the Journal of Obesity.

The Living Lab Structural Biology Center was formed through a cooperative research and development agreement between the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Bethesda, Md., and FEI, in Hillsboro, Ore., a scientific instruments company, to help accelerate medical discoveries relating to global health challenges, such as cancer and HIV/AIDS. The lab will utilize near-atomic resolution microscopy and other structural biology technologies.