The Zika virus played the role of 2016's worst health story. At the center of that story was the virus’ heartbreaking link to microcephalic babies when it infected their pregnant mothers. But sometimes, the worst vectors can still be used for good.
You have, as of today, a one hundred percent chance of dying. But a lot of people would like a little more time to do things, like eat interestingly-shaped pastas, or play catch with their grandchildren. That makes sense. I’d also like to do those things. But sometimes, our pursuit to eat lots of pasta or die trying…
This week marked a major milestone in medicine: On Wednesday, a Food and Drug Administration panel unanimously recommended the approval of the first CAR-T therapy, a pioneering new cancer drug from Novartis that genetically engineers a patient’s own white blood cells to recognize and attack the cancer cells invading…
Biologists in Japan have a developed an innovative scanning technique that makes tissues and vital organs transparent, allowing them to track cancer as it spreads throughout the bodies and brains of mice.
When we head out in the sun, we just want a sunscreen that will protect our skin and not kill us. That’s not too much to ask, is it? But the Environmental Working Group (EWG) wants us to pick the best sunscreen, and nags us with true but not very useful facts: This one contains an ingredient that caused cancer in a…
There’s no limit to viral ruthlessness. These lifeless packets of genetic code cause countless ails, often without a known cure. One such monster spends most of its time as a seemingly benign strand of DNA that could sit latent for years before striking, causing cells to turn into a rare but aggressive form of skin…
In a study that’s bound to attract considerable controversy, a pair of researchers are claiming that between 60 and 66 percent of all cancer-causing mutations are the result of random DNA copying errors, making them essentially unavoidable. The new research is offering important insights into how cancer emerges, and…
Following the deaths of five patients, Juno Therapeutics has decided to pull the plug on an experimental cancer treatment that boosts the power of a patient’s immune cells. The news comes just days after the company’s rival, Kite Pharma, announced its success with a similar method, showing there’s still hope for this…
For years, tanning beds, booths, and sunlamps have been linked to an increased risk of skin cancer, yet the number of people using tanning devices continues to rise. An alarming new study shows that indoor tanning costs the US $343 million a year in medical bills, highlighting the severity of this growing health issue.
Researchers from South Korea have engineered a strain of bacteria that infiltrates tumors and fools the body’s immune system into attacking cancer cells. In experiments, the modified bacteria worked to reduce cancer in mice, raising hope for human trials.
Two infants diagnosed with an aggressive and previously incurable form of leukemia are now in remission, after British doctors say they cured the babies using so-called “designer cells.”
Humanity would understand very little about cancer, and be hard-pressed to find cures, without scientific research. But what if, when teams recreated each other’s research, they didn’t arrive at the same result?
By boosting the power of a patient’s immune cells, researchers from the City of Hope Beckman Research Institute have demonstrated the potential for a revolutionary new therapy to treat a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer. But given the limited results, many questions remain.
A sweeping analysis of current research shows that people who eat at least 20 grams of nuts each day are less likely to develop potentially fatal conditions such as cancer and heart disease.
The active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, is remarkably effective at reducing feelings of anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental anguish in cancer patients, according to a pair of new studies.
A team of scientists in China has become the first to treat a human patient with the groundbreaking CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique. While the results of the trial are uncertain, it’s a historic milestone that should serve as a serious wakeup call to the rest of the world.
We already knew smoking was bad for our lungs, but a new study shows exactly how many DNA mutations per cell are caused by sucking on those nicotine sticks. If you’re interested in obsessively quantifying your bad life choices, know that smoking a pack a day will lead to approximately 150 mutations per lung cell each…
A team of European researchers put six highly-trained sniffer dogs to the test to see if they were any good at detecting lung cancer. The results were surprisingly bad, but the scientists say factors other than the canine sense of smell were responsible for the poor performance.
A blue-ribbon panel commissioned by the Obama administration has released a report describing 10 transformative research strategies designed to increase the speed at which cancer research is conducted—but it’s not clear if US Congress will commit the necessary funds.
