Many of us are familiar with the most common strategies for treating cancer: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. But in the past two decades, more targeted treatments have been developed. One such innovation, called theranostics, uses specially engineered radioactive tracers in combination with advanced imaging techniques, to not only find and map cancer cells throughout the body, but also serve as a beacon, lighting a path that cancer-destroying drugs can follow.

Many middle-aged and older women get mammograms every one to two years to screen for breast cancer. When specialists read these mammograms, they assess breast density along with signs of cancer, comparing a woman’s previous mammograms to her most recent one to look for worrisome changes. But some changes are difficult to detect by eye. A study by researchers indicates that previous mammograms hold underutilized data that could help identify women at high risk of breast cancer.

Pelvic organ prolapse – which occurs when the uterus, bowel, bladder or top of the vagina “drops” or bulges into the vagina – affects one in four women in their 40s and half of all women in their 80s, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The condition can cause serious discomfort and affect everything from a woman’s ability to work, exercise and control her bowel and bladder function. When treated, it can result in the resolution or minimization of symptoms.

Robotic technology is being used in the operating room as a tool during surgery. The technology gives transplant surgeons additional flexibility, dexterity, articulation, visualization and stability, all of which are used to retrieve kidneys from living donors and transplant them into people in need of a new kidney. Pulmonologists rely on those same robotic qualities to perform biopsies of small tumors located deep inside the lungs.

For the past six years, the Anesthesiology Control Tower (ACT) has provided a watchful eye over 60 operating rooms at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, serving nearly 1,000 patients per week. Like the air traffic control tower, the ACT provides additional sets of eyes to help anesthesia clinicians head off and troubleshoot rare but potentially life-threatening perioperative events that can occur unpredictably.