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Pittsburgh doctor hopes FDA-approved colon cancer blood tests boosts screening rates

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Pittsburgh doctor hopes FDA-approved colon cancer blood tests boosts screening rates


PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A simple blood test to screen for colorectal cancer was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

According to the American Cancer Society, 53,000 people will die of colorectal cancer this year and less than 60 percent follow screening guidelines. Doctors are hoping the newly approved screening tool will help change that.

“I’m very happy that we have an additional tool in our toolbox to help people get screened for colon cancer,” said Dr. James McCormick, chief of colon and rectal surgery at Allegheny Health Network.

Dr. McCormick is excited about the FDA-approved first-of-its-kind blood test. It’s meant for people 45 and older with an average risk for the disease.

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“You just get your blood drawn. What they’re doing is looking in the blood for circulating tumor DNA. So, DNA that the tumor will have released into the blood, and it would be able to detect that,” Dr. McCormick said.

In Guardant Health’s clinical trials, the blood test was 83 percent accurate in detecting cancer that’s already formed.

“That’s someone who’s already has a cancer. For the precancer solutions, unfortunately, it’s down in the 13 to 20% range that it can pick that up. So, it’s not going to pick up those polyps before they become cancer,” he said.

The Shield test is not a replacement for colonoscopies. Any positive blood test result would then require a colonoscopy.

“It’s different from a colonoscopy, which is the traditional screening test that we offer people, where we can take precancerous tumors at the time of the colonoscopy and remove them before they can become cancerous tumors. That’s still the best screening test, and really the only test that you should have if you have any symptoms at any age,” Dr. McCormick said.

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McCormick reiterated that people who get symptoms at any age should get screened and that everyone should be screened for colon cancer at age 45. He said despite efforts to spread the word, 20 or 25 percent of people never get screened.

He hopes the blood test will help boost the rate of screenings and save more lives.

“If there’s a reason that they’re not getting screened that is solved by the Shield test, then we’ll take it. We’ll get them in that way,” Dr. McCormick said.

This approval comes at a time when more people have been developing colon cancer at younger ages.

“We’re even seeing patients in their 20s and 30s with colon cancer, even with no family history. And we have no idea why or who is going to be affected by this,” Dr. McCormick said.

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He said never to ignore symptoms. If something is different with your bowel, fight for yourself and make sure you get the test you need.

“Anytime there’s bleeding, there’s abdominal pain, anytime there’s a change in the way your bowels work that persists more than just a few weeks, definitely call your doctor and insist upon getting a colonoscopy,” Dr. McCormick said.

The Shield test has been used by doctors for high-risk surveillance after treatment. A stool test is another screening tool that’s available.

Dr. McCormick said if a blood test and a stool test are negative, those would probably be repeated every three years. Negative colonoscopies only need to be done every 10 years.

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Masontown Borough unanimously votes to reinstate police department

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Masontown Borough unanimously votes to reinstate police department


During an emergency meeting on Saturday night, Masontown borough council voted 6-0 to reinstate its police department after council initially voted on Monday to lay off the entire department, citing budgetary reasons as the leading factor for the decision.



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Pittsburgh Pirates Swap with A’s That Makes Sense For Both Clubs

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Pittsburgh Pirates Swap with A’s That Makes Sense For Both Clubs


The Pittsburgh Pirates could use some bats, and the A’s are still looking to add some pitching this winter, so how likely is it that these clubs come together on a deal?

According to Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates are still on the lookout for some help on the left side of the infield. Over at Roster Resource, their starters at short and third as listed as Nick Gonzales (82 wRC+ in 2025) and Jared Triolo (86).

While the A’s are having a little showdown of their own at third base this spring, they have a number of players in the mix. Perhaps they could move one of them in a deal with Pittsburgh in order to land a relief pitcher with some upside.

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The proposed deal that we have in mind is the A’s sending third baseman Brett Harris, who may be starting as the third option at the hot corner this spring. Harris has a tremendous glove at third, and statistically it appears to be at least on par with the glove what Triolo provided last season.

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In just 183 2/3 innings with the A’s in 2025, Harris put up a +5 DRS, and +2 in both OAA and FRV. Triolo, in roughly 80 extra innings finished with a +7 DRS and +4 in both OAA and FRV. Both players are solid defensively.

Triolo has had more experience in the big leagues, which does account for something, but if you’re the Pirates, do you consider making a change and taking a chance on a similar defender with more upside in the bat? Their current option hit .227 with a .311 OBP and an 86 wRC+ last season in 376 plate appearances. Harris could put together a double-digit home run season at the very least.

Harris played in just 32 games (84 plate appearances) and hit .274 with a .349 OBP and a 96 wRC+. While he certainly looked like an improved player over his initial stint in the big leagues with the A’s in 2024, there was also some luck involved in his improvement—mainly his .377 BABIP. The risk for the Pirates would be taking the chance on that bat being for real.

In exchange, the proposed piece that the Pirates would send back in 30-year-old Yohan Ramírez. The right-hander ranks in the 94th percentile in extension on top of sitting at 96.4 miles per hour with his heater, which is quite appealing. He also held a 5.40 ERA (3.80 FIP) last season, so he’s far from a finished product, and given his age, he’s a flier himself.

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This is the type of pitcher that the A’s have had success with in recent seasons—guys that can collect strikeouts but also tend to issue free passes. In 2025 with the Pirates, he struck out 29% of the batters he faced and walked 10.3%.

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There are two interesting tidbits in his profile that could cause a little worry. The first is that he’s bounced around quite a bit in recent seasons, including spending time with the Dodgers, Mets, Orioles and Red Sox in 2024. Those are all teams that love to pull extra value from guys, and if they all gave up on him, then that’s not the greatest track record.

All of those teams seemed to view him as a guy that could provide a few innings when their bullpens were gassed, which led to him having short stints with each club, totaling a 6.20 ERA (4.26 FIP) across 45 innings.

The other interesting piece here is that when he has been with the Pirates, in both 2025 and back in 2022, his velocity has ticked up considerably. In 2022, he also spent time with the Mariners, and he was sitting 94.2. But with Pittsburgh, that went up to 96.5. In 2024, he topped out at 95.3 mph with the O’s and Mets.

This past season he was back to 96.2 mph. Is there something special for him about pitching in Pittsburgh? Do their radar guns run a little hot? Is this more of a time of year situation that gets hammered out over longer stints (like with the Pirates)? It’s unclear.

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But if he’s truly a 96-mile-per-hour reliever that the A’s could add to their ‘pen, then this trade may be worth some heavy consideration.

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Of course, Ramírez is out of options which would make this a little tricky, and Harris has roughly double the amount of team control, so the value may have to be squared away by adding another piece or two to the ledger. But these two players, Harris and Ramírez, could do a lot of good for the opposite clubs.

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O’Connor vows Pittsburgh won’t cooperate with ICE

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O’Connor vows Pittsburgh won’t cooperate with ICE


Days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor reaffirmed that he will not cooperate with ICE.

Former Mayor Ed Gainey had taken the same position.

“My stance never changed,” O’Connor told TribLive on Friday. “We’re not going to cooperate.”

O’Connor said the same thing on the campaign trail, promising his administration would not partner with ICE.

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“My priority is to turn the city around and help it grow,” O’Connor said. “For us, it’s got to be focusing on public safety in the city of Pittsburgh.”

President Donald Trump has sent a surge of federal officers into Minneapolis, where tensions have escalated sharply.

O’Connor said he had spoken this week with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who heads the Democratic Mayors Association. The group has condemned ICE’s actions in the wake of Wednesday’s fatal encounter in Minneapolis, where an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Nicole Macklin Good, a U.S. citizen described as a poet and mother.

“Mayors are on the ground every day working to keep our communities safe,” the association said in a statement Thursday. “If Trump were serious about public safety, he would work with our cities, not against them. If he were serious, he would stop spreading propaganda and lies, and end the fear, the force, and the federal overreach.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has come out strongly against the Trump administration and ICE, penning an op-ed piece for the New York Times with the headline, “I’m the Mayor of Minneapolis. Trump Is Lying to You.”

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said an ICE officer shot Good in self-defense. Noem described the incident as “domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers and claimed Good tried to “run them over and rammed them with her vehicle.”

The circumstances of the incident are in dispute.

In December, ICE agents were involved in a scuffle in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood as they arrested a Latino man.

According to neighbors, two unmarked vehicles sandwiched a white Tacoma in the 400 block of Norton Street, broke the driver’s side window, pulled a man from the vehicle and got into a physical altercation. Pepper spray was deployed and seemed to get in the eyes of both the man being detained and at least one immigration agent.

At least some of the officers on the scene in that incident belong to ICE.

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They targeted the man, Darwin Alexander Davila-Perez, a Nicaraguan national, for claiming to be a U.S. citizen while trying to buy a gun, according to court papers.



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