Hologic, Inc., a developer, manufacturer and supplier of premium diagnostics products, medical imaging systems and surgical products, with an emphasis on serving the healthcare needs of women, announced that Jack W. Cumming, Hologic's president and CEO, presided over the NASDAQ Stock Market Opening Bell Ceremony on Oct. 1, marking the start of a month-long effort to raise awareness of breast cancer and the importance of breast cancer screening. This is the eighth year that Hologic has been selected to participate in the NASDAQ opening bell ceremonies celebrating the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Civco Medical Solutions demonstrated the integration between the Protura Robotic Patient Positioning System and Varian’s Clinac iX and Trilogy medical linear accelerators via the Varian Motion Management Interface at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.

Results of EORTC trial 10853 appearing in Journal of Clinical Oncology show that breast conserving treatment combined with radiotherapy reduces the risk of local recurrence in women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). In the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) study, adjuvant radiotherapy after local excision reduced the incidence of both in situ and invasive local recurrences by a factor of two and resulted in an overall lower risk of mastectomy.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the leading cause of death in high school-aged athletes. To determine if SCD can be prevented with a heart screening, The Christ Hospital Health Network (Cincinnati, Ohio), The University of Mississippi Medical Center and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center partnered with USRowing and Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. to conduct The Athlete Heart Research Study. Initial participants included volunteer high school rowers with more than two years of continuous practice who competed in the USRowing Youth National Championships, June 7 – 9, 2013, in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

A joint Brigham Young University-University of Utah research team is developing a new breast cancer screening technique that has the potential to reduce false positives and, possibly, minimize the need for invasive biopsies.

Sapheneia Commercial Products AB filed for bankruptcy Aug. 28, 2013. Shortly before the company went into bankruptcy, it changed its company name to “Contact Imaging Sweden AB.” In July 2013, the Stockholm District Court ruled that ContextVision is the real owner of a key patent application filed by Sapheneia in September 2006. The court also ruled that Sapheneia should pay the legal costs of ContextVision amounting to TSEK 2,940. The amount has not been paid, and instead, Sapheneia filed for bankruptcy. The administration of the company in bankruptcy has been taken over by a receiver.