In the late 1980s, a diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) was invariably fatal. A remarkable therapy called imatinib specifically targets the genetic alteration responsible for CML, the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase fusion. In yesterday’s plenary session, “Imatinib as a Paradigm of Targeted ...
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Immunotherapy has ushered in a new age of cancer care. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved six checkpoint inhibitors and two CAR T cell therapies in recent years, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology has named immunotherapy “the advance of the year” for the past 3 years ...
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In the summer of 2004, several passengers aboard a cruise ship in Alaska developed gastrointestinal illness that was later linked to Vibrio parahaemolyticus from the fresh, local oysters they ate on board. It was the first known outbreak of V. parahaemolyticus that far north in Alaska, and health ...
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An analysis of genetic tests taken from 1.45 million individuals at a commercial lab in Utah revealed that nearly 25% of variants of uncertain significance (VUS) had been reclassified, pointing to a need for laboratories to stay on top of gene variant changes and inform doctors of any reclassificati...
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Commercial diagnostic tests endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) are failing to identify mutant strains of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa, leading to undetected outbreaks, misdiagnoses and recurring drug resistance in this part of the continent. A study in The Lancet Infectious ...
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Drugs of abuse (DOA) testing is no longer just about synthetic cannabinoids. Maryland-based drug abuse researchers who teamed up with two area hospitals found that illicit street drug formulas had evolved to the point that they contained multiple psychoactive substances. Their study results have ...
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Laboratorians may see a rise in the volume of human papillomavirus (HPV) tests to screen for cervical cancer. In revised guidelines, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for the first time is recommending standalone high-risk (hrHPV) testing as one of several options for women ...
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Historically, treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC) has been guided primarily by cancer stage, morphology, and family history. However, as technological developments over the last decade have reduced the turnaround time and cost of molecular methods, DNA testing of tumor tissue has rapidly become ...
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Novel technologies are evolving rapidly in the arena of diagnosing infectious disease. Ensuring that patients get the right tests and appropriate clinical management in this environment requires a solid partnership among clinical labs, infectious disease (ID) physicians, and pharmacists, two ...
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A high volume of microbiology specimens did not deter a team of investigators from successfully reducing turnaround time and saving reagent costs and technologists’ time at a VA hospital. The key ingredient? Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF). ...
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