Illnesses and conditions

Scientists who won a 2024 IgNobel Prize for "discovering that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus" have now completed a successful trial based on this, using a technique that gets oxygen into the blood via an unconventional route.

A new drug combination to treat advanced recurring prostate cancer has shown remarkable results in a long-term trial, lowering the risk of death after eight years by 40.3%. What's more, the drug treatments are already FDA-approved on their own.

The age of the GLP-1 drug has reached yet another milestone, with the US Food and Drug Administration green-lighting Novo Nordisk's once-daily oral semaglutide pill to treat people at high risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke.

Scientists have identified a pair of pesky enzymes responsible for prolonging prostate cancer – which means we can potentially target them for quicker and more effective treatment of a condition that affects 1.5 million men around the world annually.

A one-time gene therapy using a patient’s own stem cells has effectively cured a deadly immune disorder in 95% of treated children, offering a lasting, donor-free solution to ADA-SCID, known as the “bubble boy” disease.

A new study suggests that a father’s COVID-19 infection could do more than make him sick – it may leave epigenetic marks on his sperm that pass anxiety to his offspring, revealing how viral infections can echo across generations.

People with severe chronic pain were far more likely to have elevated levels of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, a new study found, hinting at an immune link to pain – but the rise in these cells didn’t make treatments any less effective.

A new class of weight-loss drug has shown it can significantly boost weight loss when paired with GLP-1 therapy – without adding side effects – in a mid-stage clinical trial, pointing to a powerful new combination approach to tackling obesity.

In a groundbreaking study, a healthy fatty acid in olive oil has been found to "supercharge" immune cells that fight cancer. Meanwhile, another kind of natural fat undermines the health of the same cells, killing them off and triggering inflammation.

A next-generation cancer vaccine has shown stunning results in mice, preventing up to 88% of aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancers by harnessing dual-pathway nanoparticles that train the immune system to recognize and destroy tumor cells.

A review of existing research has found that tramadol’s pain relief benefits are minimal and may be outweighed by serious side effects, challenging the drug’s reputation as a “safer” opioid option for treating chronic pain.

A once-daily pill for ulcerative colitis has delivered strong results in a clinical trial, easing symptoms even in patients for whom other treatments had failed and raising hopes for a safer, more effective therapy for a condition that affects millions.

For the first time, scientists have detailed how glioblastoma has a unique path of progression, aggressively gnawing away at the skull bone itself to affect marrow – explaining why drugs that are intended to impede its growth end up making it worse.

A natural psychedelic may do more than alter perception. A new study found that at sub-hallucinogenic doses, DMT shielded the brain from stroke damage in animal models, reducing inflammation, preserving the blood-brain barrier, and speeding recovery.

Precision-targeted radiation is proving a match for surgery in early-stage lung cancer, offering patients similar long-term survival with less invasiveness, and potentially transforming how this common cancer is treated.