Chronic drug shortages stress hospitals and patients
Pharmacists struggle to find key medicines and now have to anticipate drug shortages caused by extreme weather and global instability.
chemotherapy
Drugmakers are slow to prove medicines that got a fast track to market really work
Stalled confirmatory trials and lax enforcement plague the Food and Drug Administration's accelerated approval pathway for pharmaceuticals that target urgent medical needs.
Deb gave her boyfriend an 'opt out' option when she got cancer. He went another way
When Deb Merchant was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 she gave her boyfriend a choice: he could "opt out" of their relationship. He had a simple response.
Trees Talk To Each Other. 'Mother Tree' Ecologist Hears Lessons For People, Too
Ecologist Suzanne Simard says trees are "social creatures" that communicate with each other in remarkable ways — including warning each other of danger and sharing nutrients at critical times.
Have Cancer, Must Travel: Patients Left In Lurch After Town's Hospital Closes
As the rural town of Fort Scott, Kan., grapples with the closure of its hospital, cancer patients bear a heavy burden. They now have to go elsewhere for treatments they used to get locally.
Insurers And Government Are Slow To Cover Expensive CAR-T Cancer Therapy
Treatment costs for the immunotherapy can run to more than $1 million. Some state Medicaid programs aren't paying for the treatment, and Medicare's complicated payment rates have hospitals worried.
Czech Company Designs A Nonalcoholic Beer To Taste Good To Cancer Patients
A nonalcoholic brew joins the growing market to help chemo patients overcome the changes in their palates that make food unappealing. And it just might help them feel better, too.
For Some Breast Cancer Patients, The Chemo Decision Just Got Easier
Thousands of breast cancer patients could now safely avoid chemotherapy thanks to a major study of women with moderate risk of recurrence.
Test of Herceptin Finds Briefer Treatment Can Work, With Fewer Side Effects
An aggressive type of breast cancer — a HER2-positive tumor — often shrinks with Herceptin treatment, but side effects can be tough. Researchers say a shorter course of the drug may be a good option.
Merck Immunotherapy Drug Shines In Lung Cancer Study
Research finds that more than two-thirds of lung cancer patients who received Keytruda plus chemotherapy would be alive a year later, compared with about half of people who only got chemotherapy.