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Our story (yesterday) on basing the choice of cancer drugs on the particular gene mutation in a tumor (gene sequencing), instead of the tumor type,

A new study, released this week and slated to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology meetings in April, found a link between coffee consumption a lot of it and a reduced incidence of multiple sclerosis. It s a pretty slim thread, however.

It is fairly standard practice for companies to try to give their customers what they want, even if it makes no sense. Perhaps the most notable recent example was Johnson and Johnson,

When chemotherapy was first used in the 1940s, all of the drugs worked the same way by killing cells. The concept behind this was that, since cancer cells grow faster than non-cancerous cells, they would be selectively killed by the drug, leaving normal cells more or less unharmed.

Obesity (defined as a BMI of 30 or more), especially extreme obesity, is known to decrease the likelihood that a woman can become pregnant. In addition, when obese women do become pregnant, they are more likely to develop gestational diabetes, and have an increased risk of large babies, early delivery, and stillbirths, and their infants are at increased risk of congenital malformations.

Technological progress, our very standard of living, depends upon the scientific method. We know very well that the heart and soul of science is accurate and verifiable research findings. Research findings can be properly verified only if the underlying data and

Earlier this year, Representative Karen Clark and Senator John Marty introduced a GMO labeling bill that would mandate the labeling of foods that contain GM ingredients by

Yesterday, we took Zeke Emanuel s and his New York Times op-ed to task for a variety of reasons.
Today, ACSH advisor David Shlaes, in his blog, Antibiotics-The Perfect Storm, takes a more nuanced look at an alternative way to refill the antibiotic pipeline without dangling big prize money in front of companies that succeed in coming up with a new class of antibiotics (whatever that means).

In response to our recent Dispatch item about how genetically engineered mosquitoes could provide health benefits, Dispatch reader Dr. Tom Goerke said

Vitamin D has been widely touted as a miracle" vitamin having a myriad of health effects beyond its basic function of enabling the absorption of calcium from food. Although vitamin D plays an important role in bone health and should be consumed in the form of

There is an op-ed in today s New York Times written by former Obama administration health guru Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, which supposedly addresses the dire need for new antibiotics which is both wrong and misleading.

Continuing the assault on anti-scientific beliefs and quackery that he thoroughly eviscerated in his previous book, Do You Believe in Magic-The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, Dr. Paul Offit, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at Children s Hospital of Philadelphia, has now set his sights on another appalling practice the substitution of prayer for proper medical care.

The possible association between nut and peanut consumption and mortality rate in both Caucasian and Chinese individuals was examined by Dr. Hung N. Luu from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and colleagues.

Is chemophobia the fear of chemicals promoted by the forces of ignorance among the majority of Americans who are scientifically-naive on the threshold of winning the war? The past week gives disturbing indications that science is on the retreat.

In 2012, Washington state had an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough). Nearly 5,000 people mostly babies and children caught the disease. Surprisingly, many of the affected adolescents had been vaccinated on schedule, a new study finds. The recent analysis of that epidemic, published in Pediatrics, reports that the effectiveness of

Back in February, several prominent medical associations made a recommendation that the newly FDA approved HPV DNA test should replace pap smears or co-testing (pap smear and HPV assay) as the primary mechanism for detecting cervical cancer for all age groups.

Football is an extremely popular sport in the United States. The number of boys playing football in the US is greater than the combined number of boys playing the second and third most popular sports, according to the National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS). Approximately 3 million youth athletes play

This week in health news: Oprah Network pulls the plug on the Dr. Oz radio show, the European Commission says sick cattle to be treated with homeopathy, and the FDA takes a closer look at the efficacy of antimicrobial soaps and hand sanitizers

The federal government took another small step in the battle to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In the same week the WHO released a statement on the growing global crisis of antibiotic

This week New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an ambitious plan to significantly reduce the state s AIDS population. Several obstacles exist to achieving his goal of reducing the virus prevalence, but one many point out is the high number of people with an

A Columbia faculty Chair and even Oprah seem to be distancing themselves from Dr. Oz. It s about time, given both his unprofessional demeanor and potentially harmful medical advice on his TV show, and his attempt to distract attention from his own malfeasance.

The World Health Organization just issued a statement warning us that the world is failing miserably to adequately fight antibiotic resistance. Although the group does a very fine job in pointing out the consequences of this impending catastrophe, it fails to offer much in the way of a solution.

In his op-ed in Sunday s NYTimes, former anti-GMO activist Mark Lynas explains his conversion to supporting biotechnology as a means of feeding the world s increasing population, many of whom are or are fated to be malnourished without higher crop yields

Health officials from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization announced at a meeting last week that rubella, or German measles, has officially been eradicated from the Americas.

In this Kids Edition of Dispatch, we discuss childhood obesity, vaccines, and high blood pressure among teens!