Health & Medicine
- Health & Medicine
Blood-cell transplants slow kidney cancer
A new transplant technique that uses blood transfusions from a sibling combined with decreasing doses of immune-suppressing drugs enables some patients to fight off advanced kidney cancer.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Clot buster attached to red blood cells avoids complications
Attaching a clot-busting drug to red blood cells limits the drug's side effects, a study in animals shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Transplant Hope: New thymus tissue jump-starts immune system in babies
A thymus tissue transplant enables babies born with DiGeorge syndrome to develop functional immune systems.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Anthrax toxin curbs immune cells
A toxin produced by the anthrax bacterium suppresses cells that launch the body's immune response.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Intestinal Fortitude: Treatment for colitis shows early success
Given as a drug, a protein fragment called epidermal growth factor induces remission in people with ulcerative colitis, apparently by healing intestinal lesions.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Sweet Treatment for SARS
Since severe acute respiratory syndrome–or SARS–burst on the scene this past March, physicians have reported more than 8,400 cases worldwide. The flulike lung disease appears to have emerged in mainland China, where officials have acknowledged 7,083 cases so far. In the future, people with the intense flu- and pneumonia-like symptoms of SARS could find relief […]
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Promising drug cuts tumor metabolism
Early safety trials of an experimental medicine suggest that it could be used for treating several serious cancers.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Immune test predicts tolerance for radiation
A new blood test can foretell which cancer patients are likely to suffer serious delayed side effects from radiation therapy.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Genes linked to colon cancer take sides
Cancers on opposite sides of the colon are genetically distinct and should be studied and treated as separate entities.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Herbal therapy may carry cancer danger
An herbal extract that some women use to relieve symptoms of menopause increases the likelihood in mice with breast cancer that the disease will spread.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Keeping breathing steady and safe
Scientists may have found a way to avoid the lowered breathing rate that comes from treatment with morphine or other opiate-based narcotics and anesthetics.
By John Travis - Health & Medicine
Metal’s Mayhem: Cadmium mimics estrogen’s effects, thwarts DNA repair
Cadmium causes endocrine disruption by mimicking estrogen in rats and also thwarts routine DNA repair, causing mutations, two studies show.
By Nathan Seppa