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Mayo Clinic produces and distributes Medical Edge from Mayo Clinic — a weekly medical news package for television newscasts.

May 2008

Brain Tumor Drug

Every year more than 21-thousand people in the U.S. are diagnosed with brain cancer. Unfortunately, many of those people will die within a year of diagnosis. But Mayo Clinic doctors are hopeful that a chemotherapy drug approved to fight other types of cancer, may help people with brain cancer live longer, fuller lives.

VAD for Lifetime Use

Right now there are close to 5-million people in America suffering from heart failure. Many of these people would benefit from a heart transplant, but because most of them are over age 65, they're often not eligible for that life-saving operation. But now, doctors at Mayo Clinic are studying a device that is not only keeping people with heart failure alive longer, but it's also giving them a better quality of life.

Endovascular Stroke Treatment

When it comes to stroke, time is brain. That's because there's a small window of opportunity after symptoms begin for treatment to be effective. The man you're about to meet knows this all too well. He was in a coma from a massive stroke. But thanks to state-of-the art technology at Mayo Clinic that allows doctors to work inside the vessels of the brain without surgery, this man survived.

Radio Frequency Identification

It's technology the retail industry and libraries have used for some time. Now, doctors at Mayo Clinic are using radio frequency identification to track and trace patient specimens as they go from the procedure room to the lab. Mayo research shows the technology is fast, efficient and helps prevent human errors.

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