December 20, 2018, News Medical 

Researchers at the Queen Mary University of London have developed a new cervical cancer test that proved to be 100 percent effective at detecting the cancer in a trial of 15,744 participants. The study demonstrated that the epigenetics-based test outperformed both the Pap smear and the human papilloma virus (HPV) test, as well as being more cost effective. 

Read more.

December 19, 2018, MedPage Today  

Women up to age 40 who have residual tumor in either the breast or lymph nodes following neoadjuvant chemotherapy had higher rates of recurrence compared with women with no residual invasive tumor, according to a retrospective study. 

Read more. 

December 19, 2018, MedPage Today 

The risk of pelvic floor disorders for women years after childbirth varied depending on mode of delivery, researchers found.Women with cesarean delivery had a lower hazard of stress urinary incontinence, overactive bladder, and pelvic organ prolapses compared with women with spontaneous vaginal deliveries, reported Joan L. Blomquist, MD, of Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Maryland, and colleagues.

December 18, 2018, HealthDay News  

For treatment of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive low-risk oropharyngeal cancer, cetuximab shows no benefit compared with the standard cisplatin regimen in terms of reduced toxicity and results in worse tumor control, according to a study recently published in The Lancet. 

Read more. 

December 18, 2018, Medscape 

Nearly half of patients with breast cancer who, on multigene panel testing, are found to have a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant for breast cancer do not meet current National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for genetic testing, new research shows.  

Read more.

December 12, 2018, MedPage Today 

The frequency of cardiotoxicity declined significantly with prophylactic antihypertensive medication for patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer treated with anthracycline-containing chemotherapy, but not trastuzumab (Herceptin), a randomized trial showed. 

Read more.

December 12, 2018, MedPage Today  

Extending adjuvant endocrine therapy with an aromatase inhibitor to 10 years led to significant improvement in disease-free survival (DFS) and distant (DDFS) in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive (HR-positive) breast cancer, Japanese investigators reported. 

Read more.

December 12, 2018, Medgadget  

Ob/Gyn Hologic is releasing in the U.S. its new Omni three-in-one hysteroscope, a device that gives physicians an option of three different sheaths on the same system. Using the Omni, one is not required to switch between diagnostic and operatives scopes, as it can serve different functions thanks to the three available sheaths. The product won U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance earlier this month. 

Read more.

December 11, 2018, HealthDay News via Monthly Prescribing Reference  

From 2012 to 2016, there was a 61% increase in syphilis cases among pregnant women, with no traditional behavioral risk factors reported among half of these women, according to a study published online in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Researchers analyzed US national case report data from 2012 to 2016 to calculate trends among pregnant women with syphilis. They also examined the number of pregnant women in this population reporting high-risk behaviors. 

Read more.

December 11, 2018, Health Central  

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that the urinary incontinence medication oxybutynin (Oxytrol, Ditropan XL) can reduce the severity and frequency of hot flashes in menopausal women who aren't able to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT), including women who've had breast cancer. The researchers presented their findings at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.  

Read more.