Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer. It kills more people in the U.S. than breast, prostate and colon cancer combined. When lung adenocarcinoma, the most common primary lung cancer in the U.S., grows into nearby blood vessels (a process called vascular invasion), the tumor is more likely to recur even if surgically removed. Pathologists can identify areas of vascular invasion post-operatively, but surgeons could perform more extensive surgery to lower the risk of recurrence if they could predict which tumors were more likely to have vascular invasion.

Researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine believe they have, for the first time, identified genes whose activity changes in lung tumors with vascular invasion. Additionally, they also discovered that they could detect these changes in small pieces of the tumor collected during a presurgical biopsy procedure.  

How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact young children’s executive function skills? 

Executive function skills are a set of inter-related processes that support attention, self-control, and goal-directed behavior. Executive function has been linked to positive outcomes across multiple domains of development. The skills associated with executive function develop rapidly during childhood and promote longer-term health, academic success, and wellbeing. Researchers from Harvard University were eager to learn how the pandemic affected children's developing executive function skills across time.

WASHINGTON—Nine leading medical societies are calling for updated safety standards in fluoroscopy laboratories, often called “cath labs,” where clinicians performing minimally invasive procedures face radiation exposure and orthopedic injuries from heavy protective equipment. A report published simultaneously today in JSCAI, Heart Rhythm, JVIR, and JVS–Vascular Insights details the health, financial, and workforce impacts of fluoroscopy-guided settings and proposes an enhanced safety framework: ALARA+, or “As Low and As Light as Reasonably Achievable.”

The report addresses the dual occupational hazards linked to fluoroscopic procedures—radiation exposure and orthopedic strain from traditional protective equipment—and aims to ensure that safety is built into the environment, equipment, and standard of care.