LOS ANGELES - JANE Wyman, an Academy Award winner and former US President Ronald Reagan's first wife who was known internationally for her role in television's long-running 'Falcon Crest' series, has died at her desert home.

Wyman, who won an Oscar for her role as the deaf rape victim in 'Johnny Belinda,' died on Monday morning at her Palm Springs home, said Richard Adney of Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary in Cathedral City. Wyman's age was listed as 93 in several reference books; however, other sources, including the official family Web site , say she was 90.

'I have lost a loving mother, my children Cameron and Ashley have lost a loving grandmother, my wife Colleen has lost a loving friend she called Mom and Hollywood has lost the classiest lady to ever grace the silver screen,' son Michael Reagan said in a statement.

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Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a molecular probe that sets aglow tumor cells within living animals. Their goal is to use the probe to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

The probe's main ingredient is a molecule that labels active proteases -- protein-destroying enzymes -- that run amok in cancerous cells. The molecule is normally invisible to the naked eye but it carries a fluorescent tag that lights up when it binds to the protease. The tag beams out near-infrared light that passes through skin and is detectable with a special camera. The use of the imaging technique in mice is described in a study published in the advance online issue of Nature Chemical Biology.

"Nowadays the detection of cancer, breast cancer for instance, is normally done by mammography, using X-rays -- which might actually increase your risk of cancer.

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NORMAL, ILL. - A patient from Normal, Ill. who recently underwent total hip replacement was able to go home the same day because the surgery was performed in a new, minimally invasive way.

The orthopedic surgeon who performed the procedure, Dr. Edward Kolb, believes the patient was the first in Central Illinois to have the procedure performed and to go home on the same day.

"It's pretty cool," Kolb said as he stood in the operating room suite at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington, Ill., where he performed the surgery Feb. 20. "This is an exciting new procedure that gives us a way for patients to recover more quickly."

The patient is a longtime dancer and dance instructor who is known as "Miss Janet" to thousands of students, former students and their families.

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