A new study from Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University found that geographic location remains an important factor in access to donor lungs in the United States, even after recent updates to the national lung allocation system changed how donor lungs are distributed. 

The study, published in CHEST, evaluated early experience under the lung Composite Allocation Score (CAS), a system designed to prioritize transplant candidates based on factors including medical urgency, projected post-transplant survival and biological compatibility.

More than a decade after removal of an adenoma—a precancerous mass—from the colon, alterations to the gut microbiome and metabolites remain and may drive heightened risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study also found that diet and physical activity were more closely tied to the abundance of these CRC-associated gut microbes in people with a history of adenoma than in adenoma-free individuals, suggesting lifestyle may play a particularly important role in shaping these microbes in this high-risk group.

About The Study: This national analysis of Medicare beneficiaries undergoing cholecystectomy between 2020 and 2023 had 2 principal findings. First, the use of robotic-assisted cholecystectomy continued to increase substantially. Second, despite its growth, robotic-assisted cholecystectomy remained associated with higher risk-adjusted rates of bile duct injury compared with laparoscopic cholecystectomy, while differences in overall complication rates between approaches were small. 

A new Mass General Brigham-led study using AI to analyze electronic health records found that long COVID may be twice as common as current estimates, affecting more than 18 million Americans. The findings reveal major gaps in diagnostic coding-based surveillance, with more than 10 million cases likely uncounted and prevalence continuing to grow over time.