Last Friday, the acquisition of Southern Diagnostic Laboratories, Inc., of Birmingham, Alabama, was announced by Solstas Lab Partners of Greensboro, North Carolina. Steve Boyd, who is the Founder and CEO of Southern Diagnostics, will become a Senior Vice President at Solstas. Revenues at privately-held Southern Diagnostics were reported to be $18.9 million in 2009.
MORE ON: Solstas
Solstas Lab Partners has been on a buying spree lately. In July it announced the acquisition of two laboratory companies based in Wilmington, Delaware. One of the two labs is Wilmington Nextwave Diagnostic Labs, which is a clinical laboratory organized to serve office-based physicians and nursing homes. The other lab company was Wilmington Pathology Labs, which is the histology and cytology laboratory formerly owned by Wilmington Pathology Associates. Revenue at Solstas Lab Partners is believed to be about $400 million per year.
NEW STUDY FINDS MOST WOMEN ACT UPON GENE TEST FINDINGS
In a recent study published in the medical journal Cancer, researchers reported that a high proportion of women who get a positive result of a genetic mutation when tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes will take action based on these results. The study involved 465 women who were tested for mutations in the genes BRACA1 and BRACA2 and the researchers contacted them at a mean of 5.3 years after they had been tested. It was determined that 80% of the women who test positive for mutations in these genes will take some sort of action. These actions typically involved prophylactic surgery to remove their breasts, ovaries, or both.
ADD TO: Gene Tests
“There’s been a perception that risk-reducing surgery, especially risk-reducing mastectomy, was not something most mutation carriers would choose,” stated Marc D. Schwartz, M.D., of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C. He was the lead reseacher. The findings of this study suggest that most informed patients will take action based on the information provided by genetic testing.
TRANSITIONS
- Mara Aspinall was appointed as President of Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., a division of Roche Holdings. Aspinall has held executive positions at On-Q-ity, and Genzyme Corporation.
Dark Daily Update
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…several different issues involving anatomic pathology services in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, including lengthy turnaround times for anatomic pathology reports.
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