Health & Medicine

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. Health & Medicine

    Split Ends: Cancers follow shrinkage of chromosomes’ tips

    Genetic tabs called telomeres, which normally protect the ends of chromosomes, become undersized in many tissues that later turn cancerous, new studies in people show.

    By Ben Harder