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Two national cancer organizations, ASCO and NCCN, both recently updated their breast cancer guidelines to include a multiparameter gene expression test, Oncotype DX, which can help predict the risk of recurrence and the effectiveness of certain therapies in patients with early, node-negative, ER-positive breast cancer. Click here for more information.

A coalition of international organizations will distribute in several developing countries a new test that quickly identifies multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis. The assay gives results in two days or less, which can be important in settings where the risk of infection with MDR-TB is high.

In a report released in June, the CDC reiterated its position that all positive screening results from both rapid oral and blood HIV assays should be confirmed with supplemental tests, such as Western blot.  Data from New York City, in which unusual and unexplained spikes in the number of false-positive results on oral rapid HIV tests were observed in 2005 and 2007, were used to suppport this position.

A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the level of cardiac troponin in the blood identified patients at increased risk of dying during hospitalization for acute heart failure. The study also found that patients with a positive troponin test were more likely to require intensive care and a longer hospital stay. The researchers believe that the troponin test may have a new use in predicting how well a patient with acute heart failure will do while hospitalized.