A Cutting-Edge Cancer Treatment May Cause Cancer. The FDA Is Investigating

Scientists use harmless viruses to ferry and insert the new genetic material because of their natural ability to get inside cells. But the potential for these viruses to accidentally trigger another cancer has long been considered a theoretical risk. In its notice, the FDA said the use of these viruses may have played a role … Read more

Wegovy Slashes the Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke in a Landmark Trial

The current trial was sponsored by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, and tracked patients for two years at locations worldwide. Half of the participants received weekly injections of semaglutide while the other half received a placebo. Neither group knew which they were getting. More than three-quarters of the patients had previously experienced … Read more

The Second Person to Get a Pig Heart Transplant Just Died

Lawrence Faucette, the 58-year-old patient with terminal heart disease who was the second person to receive a genetically engineered pig heart, died on October 30, according to a statement from the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, where the transplant was performed. Faucette received the transplant on September 20 and lived for six weeks—less … Read more

Why Antidepressants Take So Long to Work

Clinical depression is considered one of the most treatable mood disorders, but neither the condition nor the drugs used against it are fully understood. First-line SSRI treatments (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) likely free up more of the neurotransmitter serotonin to improve communication between neurons. But the question of how SSRIs enduringly change a person’s mood … Read more

This Vaccine Protects Against Cancer—but Not Enough Boys Are Getting It

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to call the HPV vaccine a medical miracle. “It’s like the gift that keeps giving,” says Mark Jit, a professor of vaccine epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Not only is it the sole vaccine that can prevent cancer, “we discover it’s an even better vaccine … Read more

‘The Whole Health System Is Collapsing Around Us.’ Doctors Say Gaza Is on the Brink

Surgeons at Al-Shifa Hospital are operating without painkillers, according to Christos Christou, the international president of MSF. MSF team members say that they have “heard wounded patients screaming in pain.” Al-Shifa is currently working at more than 600 percent over capacity, its director-general Muhammad Abu Salmiya said in an editorial published in The Lancet on … Read more

The Problematic Rise of Personalized Nutrition

Chrissy Kinsella was looking for a more personalized approach to her health. “You know, what is good for you as an individual may not necessarily be good for the next person,” she says. So she reached for a subscription to Zoe—a personalized nutrition service cofounded by Tim Spector, a celebrity scientist and a genetic epidemiologist … Read more

Obesity medicine euphoria warning: Experts tackle ‘miracle drugs’

Two experts see major challenges facing the adoption of new obesity drugs. Dr. Kavita Patel, a physician and NBC News medical contributor, believes fresh data from Novo Nordisk on Ozempic’s ability to delay the progression of chronic kidney disease is among the strongest supporting evidence for secondary uses of the drug. However, she considers data … Read more

Meet the Next Generation of Doctors—and Their Surgical Robots

While there is currently no single standardized curriculum for using the surgical robot, students generally practice on simulators, work as bedside assists for around 10 cases, and then transition to working on the console with the help of an attending surgeon. In the past, there has been an emphasis on the amount of time spent … Read more

Why It’s Too Soon to Call It Covid Season

But the degree to which people accept the new shots might control whether and when a winter surge arrives. “We know from this virus, year over year, people’s immune response to each vaccine or boost starts waning at that six- to eight-month time point,” says Mark Cameron, an associate professor of population and quantitative health … Read more