An assay which measures the activity of 14 genes in lung cancer tumors can accurately predict who will respond well to surgery and who will probably die within five years, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, reported in The Lancet. 80% of lung cancer patients have NSCLC (non-small-cell lung cancer) - their long term prognosis is poor, even after surgical interventions at stages I and II of the disease (early stages), the authors wrote.

Winter can be a pain. At its mildest, the chilly weather strains your lungs during your morning run. At its worst, it wields an icy grip on your arteries. "Cold air constricts your blood vessels," says John Elefteriades, M.D., chief of cardiac surgery at Yale Medical Group. "This helps keep your body warm--bloodflow just beneath the skin diminishes, so less heat escapes." But it also causes blood-pressure spikes, which can stress arteries and heart muscle. So it's no surprise that deaths from heart attack, heart disease, and stroke peak from December through March.

In a bitter skirmish over the definition of depression, a new report contends that a proposed change to the diagnosis would characterize grieving as a disorder and greatly increase the number of people treated for it. The criteria for depression are being reviewed by the American Psychiatric Association, which is finishing work on the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or D.S.M., the first since 1994. The manual is the standard reference for the field, shaping treatment and insurance decisions, and its revisions will affect the lives of millions of people for years to come.

Introduction Where does healthcare policy go in a post-Super Committee world? That’s the question healthcare folks around D.C. are asking themselves. Now that that the Super Committee has gone the way of the dinosaurs, the healthcare policy world is back to square one – healthcare spending is growing at unsustainable rates, but nobody can agree on what to do about it.