August 11, 2011 -- The New England Journal of Medicine's recent publication of the landmark National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), along with two congressional initiatives and an industry report, herald a much brighter future for lung cancer patients.

August 11, 2011 – At Mumbai, India's Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research & Education in Cancer (ACTREC), neurosurgeons have employed Elekta SonoWand Invite in 15 patients with brain tumors since the center acquired the system in July. The integration of sophisticated intra-operative 3-D ultrasound and navigation technology in SonoWand provides both the optimal path to the tumor and –– with 3-D ultrasound –– ongoing images of the operative site, enabling the surgeon to safely remove all visible traces of the tumor.

August 11, 2011— Computed tomography (CT) scans performed in the emergency department, which increased 330 percent between 1996 and 2007, may be reducing the frequency of hospitalization or transfer for emergency patients, according to a study published online in Annals of Emergency Medicine. The accompanying editorial notes that the reduction in hospitalizations is a beneficial result for both patients and the healthcare system (“National Trends in Use of Computed Tomography in the Emergency Department” and “The Hunting of the Snark”).

August 10, 2011 — Due to changing guidelines concerning when and how often they should first be screened for breast cancer with mammograms, many women are confused. The American Cancer Society (ACS) recommends women 40 years and older get a mammogram every year; the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends mammograms every other year for women older than 50. A University of Missouri (MU) researcher says doctors and patients should communicate better about individual patients’ timing of breast cancer screenings.

August 10, 2011 – Zotec Partners a provider of medical billing, practice management and Radiology Information Systems (RIS) software and services, announced that Medical Center Radiologists (MCR) out of Norfolk, Va., signed a five-year contract extension with the company to continue as its billing services provider. Since 2007, MCR has relied on Zotec Partners to combat rising costs and declining reimbursement, and has increased collections year-over-year.

August 9, 2011 – RapidArc radiotherapy from Varian Medical Systems can be used to treat patients with blood cancers by quickly and accurately delivering "clinically favorable" total marrow irradiation (TMI), according to a team of noted cancer treatment experts who spoke at the 2011 joint meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP) in Vancouver last week. Their recent study on this topic, which is available online as an article in press ahead of publication, is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics.(1)

August 9, 2011 – A new type of radiation therapy for early-stage breast cancer that cuts down on treatment time while sparing healthy tissue is available at Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH).

August 9, 2011 — Acist Medical Systems Inc., a Bracco Group company and provider of advanced contrast injection system technology for cardiovascular angiography, announced that its’ Contrast Delivery System has been used to help diagnose and treat 10 million patients.

August 5, 2011 — Elekta has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Nucletron, a worldwide provider of technology for brachytherapy treatment planning and delivery.