Referring patients to a telephone counseling intervention that promotes colorectal cancer screening is a feasible strategy for primary care physicians to use and may coax some hesitant patients to follow through with screening, according to a study published Sept. 16 in the American Journal of Managed Care.

Cianna Medical, Inc., a women’s health company, today announced results of two new studies showing excellent longer-term outcomes with the SAVI® breast brachytherapy applicator, including low recurrence rates, few toxicities, excellent cosmetic outcomes and high rates of survival.

One of the major issues with breast cancer screening is reducing the number of false positives, as they can lead to expensive and potentially harmful downstream testing. A new screening technique being developed by a joint Brigham Young University and University of Utah research team aims to solve this issue.

MRI Interventions, Inc. (OTCQB: MRIC) announced today that its ClearPoint(R) Neuro Intervention System for real-time MRI-guided navigation in minimally-invasive neurosurgery procedures has been utilized at Cincinnati Children's Hospital to perform deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery for treatment of pediatric dystonia while the patient rested under general anesthesia.Dr. Ellen Air, neurosurgeon at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, has performed DBS electrode placement to relieve debilitating movement symptoms related to pediatric dystonia, a movement disorder characterized by short, irregular, involuntary muscle contractions.

A pair of the top molecular imaging stories from the past month offered something resembling symmetry, with one touting the effectiveness of a radiopharmaceutical soon after it received regulatory approval, and the other confirming the benefits of PET scanning in Alzheimer’s patients just ahead of another important regulatory decision.

Cancer screening with amino acid PET has already been validated for adults, but it has now been deemed a powerful tool for tumor localization in children and young adults, according to a study published Sept. 19 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

The American Board of Radiology Foundation (ABRF) and Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) today announce that Varian is awarding a $100,000 second year renewal grant to the ABRF, to continue its work establishing a national brachytherapy registry. The registry, which is the first such nationwide modality-based project in radiation oncology, is linked to the American Board of Radiology's (ABR's) Innovation Pathway in Maintenance of Certification (MOC) for Focused Practice Recognition of Brachytherapy.

Patients with symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) who are diagnosed early with PET imaging receive medication earlier and have better clinical outcomes, according to interim results from the first study to confirm the benefits of early diagnosis in the neurodegenerative disease.