Health & Medicine
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Health & Medicine
Predicting Prostate Cancer’s Moves
To guide treatment decisions in individual cases of prostate cancer, medical researchers are using gene-expression profiling and other novel techniques to develop better predictive markers of how a given tumor will behave.
By Ben Harder -
Health & Medicine
Brawny Brains: Creatine pills may aid memory and cognition
The popular muscle-building supplement creatine can boost performance on mental tests.
By Ben Harder -
Health & Medicine
Switching Off Pain: Modeling relief on the action of marijuana
A new drug, tested in rats, blocks pain caused when the nervous system goes awry without producing unwanted side effects.
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Health & Medicine
Blood Sugar Fix
A new class of experimental drugs that mimic the actions of the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 shows benefits against type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & Medicine
Virus Shield: Ebola vaccine works fast in monkey test
Tests on monkeys show that an experimental vaccine can build immunity against Ebola virus within a month, suggesting the vaccine might help contain outbreaks of the deadly pathogen.
By Nathan Seppa -
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