The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to a pair of immunologists for devising an effective new class of cancer therapy that unshackles the body’s immune system.
The first wave of routine genetics testing has already helped millions of people learn about their hereditary risk for certain diseases like cancer. But a new study published Tuesday in JAMA suggests that as our knowledge of genetics expands, these initial results sometimes need to be revised.
A devastating viral disease could actually help treat and prevent brain cancer in the future, suggests yet more research, published Tuesday in MBio. Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch and elsewhere successfully used a modified version of the Zika virus to selectively kill off certain stem cells that…
It’s become a heartbreakingly common sight on the internet: People using crowdfunding sites to raise money for their expensive health care, including cancer treatment. But a new report published Wednesday in the BMJ suggests that desperate people are often using this money to pursue dubious, possibly dangerous…
The Food and Drug Administration is trying to stop the state of California from going ahead and abiding with a controversial court decision, one that would mandate coffee sold in the state come with a label warning people it could cause cancer.
Americans who opened the newspaper on January 5, 1961, were greeted with an article by Associated Press science writer John Barbour. He described the futuristic world of the year 2000 and the great medical advances that would be achieved by then. And quite frankly, reading about all of the medical miracles we were…
A steam pipe blew up just blocks away from the Gizmodo office this morning, emitting a plume of white smoke on New York City’s Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District. The Gizmodo writers are all fine, unfortunately for you. But The New York Times reports that city officials believe the pipe, installed in 1932, might be…
Officials with California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) have intervened to nullify a recent court ruling saying coffee sold in the state—say, like at a local Starbucks—must be accompanied by warning labels saying brewed coffee contains the carcinogen acrylamide.
A test developed by scientists in the UK and US might someday be able to pinpoint the men most likely to get prostate cancer. A new study published Monday in Nature Genetics suggests the test can detect the one percent of men who are genetically most vulnerable to developing prostate cancer, a leading cause of cancer…
Over the past few weeks, multiple media outlets have written about Kathy Bero, a 54-year-old woman who claims her breast cancer 12 years ago was ultimately defeated through a special diet and diligent use of reiki, an alternative medicine that purports to treat disease via healing energy channeled through a person’s…
A 38-year-old woman was forced to endure the sort of body horror that would make John Carpenter shudder: An all-consuming, if benign, ovarian tumor that swelled up to 132 pounds. But thankfully, doctors were able to successfully remove the monstrosity with relative ease.
Yet another study claiming to show a connection between cancer and cellphones—this time from the UK—is making the rounds. But plenty of scientists are saying the new paper is misleading.
Ever since researchers first discovered that bacterial immune systems could be hijacked to selectively change DNA in living creatures, CRISPR gene-editing technology has been limited by the boundaries of the cell wall. CRISPR allows scientists to cut and paste little bits of DNA, swapping out even single letters of…
Do you think Ryan Reynolds actually sits down in costume for every Deadpool 2 ad spot that isn’t just footage from the actual movie, or is it just some guy in a suit with Reynolds’ voice dubbed over in post? Either way, whoever this pink Deadpool is, he’s got a very special proposal he’d like to share with the world.
Earlier Wednesday, a California Superior Court judge issued a proposed ruling that’s bound to stress out lots of java drinkers—even if it probably shouldn’t. Companies like Starbucks will have to tell customers that their coffee can potentially cause cancer.
Anatomy books are in need of a major upgrade, argue a team of scientists in a paper published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports. They say the body contains a previously undiscovered network of fluid-filled pockets and collagen underneath the skin that covers most of the body and internal organs. More than…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared 23andMe to sell directly to customers a DNA test for gene mutations linked to breast cancer, making it the first consumer DNA testing company to win the agency’s approval for a cancer risk screening.
Even under the best of circumstances, cancer treatment can be an excruciating, costly ordeal that tragically doesn’t even work sometimes. In light of that reality, scientists and doctors have long searched for a way to proactively head off the problem using a vaccine. One potential approach to a cancer vaccine,…
As a general rule, cancer patients have to worry about the possibility that their cancer will return with a vengeance, no matter how successful their initial treatment course may have been. But some men with prostate cancer are left in an even more nerve-wracking state of uncertainty. Their cancer appears practically…
There are few better things on a blustery cold day than a spot of hot tea. But a new study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that some people’s tea habits—in particular, those who drink and smoke regularly—might be raising their chances of developing esophageal cancer. The findings also…
