The upgrades to CYTOPATHNET continue with the successful move to a new server. This should help improve performance. During this move, the Online Campus was also upgraded to the latest version of ATutor, and is available at http://campus.cytopathnet.org. Please contact me if you notice anything that appears to not be functioning correctly.

We upgraded the site over the past 2 days to Tikiwiki 2.0 rc 4. This will help site performance. We were able to fix the FREETAG functionality, which allows users to click on topics and quickly find related content quickly and easily.

A review article published by the Cochran Collaboration was recently released and discussed on Good Morning America today. The review concludes that "...Data from two large trials do not suggest a beneficial effect of screening by breast self-examination but do suggest increased harm in terms of increased numbers of benign lesions identified and an increased number of biopsies performed. At present, screening by breast self-examination or physical examination cannot be recommended. ..."

To obtain the report, please follow this link: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/homepages/106568753/CD003373.pdf To find out more about the Cochran Collaboration, please follow this link: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/mrwhome/106568753/HOME

The FDA has denied Merck's request to expand the use of Gardasil vaccine for older women 27-45 http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSWNAS917720080625?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0). The FDA stated that there were "..."issues" which precluded their approval..." of the request. The company is still pursuing its approval of intended expansion of vaccine use to males by year-end.

May 13 has been designated National Cytotechnology Day (NCD). Since 1985, NCD commemorates Dr. George Papanicolaou's contributions to the field of medicine, occuring on his birthday each year. May 12-18, 1985 became the first ever National Cytotechnology Week.

Learn how to communicate with others around the world on CYTOPATHNET. Please visit the Blog link below to find out to enable the correct settings on your profile.

Click here to learn how.

Cytology Proficiency Improvement Act of 2007 (H.R.1237) Passes House and Now in Senate

Site upgrade to version 1.10 has been completed. The exciting addition to the upgrade is an enhanced WYSIWYG editor, that will hopefully prove to be a bit more user friendly and familiar to everyone. (Now you have no excuse to jump in and help!!)

Recommended Article: Am J Clin Pathol. 2007 Nov;128(5):817-24. Frequency and outcome of cervical cancer prevention failures in the United States. Raab SS, Grzybicki DM, Zarbo RJ, Jensen C, Geyer SJ, Janosky JE, Meier FA, Vrbin CM, Carter G, Geisinger KR. Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, and Western Pennsylvania Hospital 15232, USA.

The 2006 Consensus Guidelines for the Management for Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening Tests and the Management of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia and Adenocarcinoma in situ are now available for your review on the ASCCP website. You may download from the ASCCP website at http://www.asccp.org/consensus.shtml.

Study materials will become available on the CYTOPATHNET campus in the upcoming weeks.

To discuss these guidelines, follow this link. For more information about these guidelines, visit 2006 ASCCP Guidelines.