CHICAGO — A drug that delivers a powerful poison to tumors without some of the side effects of traditional treatments can delay the worsening of breast cancer and also appears to substantially prolong lives, according to results of a study presented here Saturday.Besides representing an advance in t

Doctors were told last month that we should stop doing so many screenings for prostate cancer with the prostate-specific antigen test. We learned that sigmoidoscopy is a cheaper, easier and effective alternative to colonoscopy for colon cancer screening. And a study I led turned up strong evidence t

Many studies have found that statins reduce the risk for recurring cardiac problems, but not the risk for death. Now an analysis suggests that the drugs may reduce mortality significantly only in men.For the report, which appears in Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers reviewed 11 randomized,

A drug which can extend the lives of men with incurable prostate cancer has been approved for use in Scotland.Scotland was the only part of the UK where abiraterone was not yet available on the NHS.But the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has now given doctors the green light to prescribe it.The

(Reuters) – At an ill-fated press conference in 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler boldly predicted an effective AIDS vaccine would be available within just two years.But a string of failed attempts – punctuated by a 2007 trial in which a Merck vaccine appeared to make p

(Reuters) – Republican governors bent on rejecting the healthcare law’s expanded insurance coverage for millions of low-income Americans may see their gambit backfire if their party fails to sweep the November elections.Five governors have vowed to opt out of the Medicaid expansion for low-income pe

(Reuters) – AstraZeneca is to conduct a new global clinical trial of key new heart drug Brilinta involving 11,500 patients with peripheral artery disease, Britain’s second biggest drugmaker said on Tuesday.Peripheral artery disease affects around 27 million people in Europe and North America, with s

More than 200 researchers investigating colon cancer tumors have found genetic vulnerabilities that could lead to powerful new treatments. The hope is that drugs designed to strike these weak spots will eventually stop a cancer that is now almost inevitably fatal once it has spread.Scientists increa

(Reuters) – The World Health Organization has endorsed using HIV medicines among people who do not have the infection but are at high risk of getting it and suggested that poor and wealthy countries alike set up pilot projects to better understand the benefits.The United Nations agency made its sugg

The findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine could fuel a political furor over new plans for a nationwide expansion of Medicaid that erupted after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold President Barack Obama’s healthcare law in late June.In an unexpected move, the high court rul