Loneliness can be a problem for older people, especially when they’re in the hospital. Their children may have moved away. Spouses and friends may themselves be too frail to visit. So a California hospital is providing volunteer companions in the geriatric unit.
In a small new study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers who are pioneering an immune-based treatment for cancer report encouraging results among people with otherwise untreatable non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer.
A late-stage trial will begin later this year in South Africa to test the effectiveness of an HIV vaccine that has shown promise in earlier trials, according to the National Institutes of Health. Results from an ongoing preliminary trial in South Africa and a previous late-stage trial in Thailand suggest the new vaccine may provide […]
Her chart said ‘Two weeks to fatal event.’ Ten years later, she’s still alive. Dates are important to a person who knows he’s dying of cancer. There’s the day when he learned he was sick. There’s the date of his first surgery, or of the first time a vein in his forearm was punctured with […]
Grabbing and removing a clot blocking blood flow to the brain, rather than just administering clot-busting drugs, dramatically improves the likelihood that patients will recover from a stroke, according to two highly-anticipated studies released on Wednesday.
From robot guided lasers which destroy tumors but leave healthy brain tissue unaffected to drugs which can be directed to specific parts of the brain by magnets, BBC Click’s Dan Simmons looks at the future of brain cancer treatments. WATCH THE VIDEO
Each year, half a million people die from aneurysms, blood vessel ruptures in the brain. For survivors, disabilities are often severe – from blindness and trouble speaking, to loss of balance and memory problems. But new technologies are increasing survival rates and reducing disabilities. Shelley Schlender introduces us to one survivor who, because she is […]
Get a glimpse inside one of veteran publicist Nanci Ryder’s ALS treatment appointments. Plus, learn the common signs and symptoms of the progressive disease. WATCH THE VIDEO
A Profile of Keith L. Black, MD The challenge. Keith L. Black is no stranger to challenges. At age seven, he took on segregationist rules in his hometown of Auburn, Ala., by swimming in a “whites only” pool. Science became Black’s next challenge when he was a teenager. At 17, he published a paper based […]
What if a compound from a common spice could help detect Alzheimer’s in patients? A team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is developing a test that could make early detection possible, and a first step for the patient would be taking pills derived from curcumin, which is found in turmeric, an ingredient often used in Indian curries.
Watch the video.
New Retinal Imaging Test for Alzheimer’s One day when she was 76 years old, Rosa Rodrigo took a wrong turn out of a shopping center parking lot and found she had no idea where to turn next. “It was a little scary because I didn’t remember where I came from, or where I was going,” […]
For two weeks in the fall of 2006, Mary Wong Lee of San Dimas, California, had been plagued by on-and-off headaches, but when words began escaping her the 55-year-old office manager got worried. “I’d be writing letters or reports and know I wanted to say ‘appreciate’ or ‘opportunity,’ but couldn’t think how to spell them,” […]
People keep asking about my stroke.
I am okay, really—not staggering around with one arm hanging limp, or glassy-eyed or slurring my speech, flecks of spittle on my lips. And yet people still say, “How are you doing?” in that special way that means, “Tell us the painful truth and feel free to cry.”
It was a desperate measure, for a desperate disease. Fourteen months ago, Dennis Sugrue let doctors thread a fine tube through his blood vessels and up into his head, so they could spray the drug Avastin directly into the part of his brain where a tumor had been cut out.
An operation commonly performed to remove brain tumors from the pituitary glands of humans is now available to dogs, thanks to a collaboration between a neurosurgeon and some veterinarians in Los Angeles. And that is turning out to be good for humans. So far, nine dogs and one cat that otherwise would have died have […]
Evidence is accumulating that migraines with aura — a transient visual or sensory disturbance, such as light flashes or zigzag patterns– may increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.