Tag: Blood

Surgeons Transplant Pig Kidney Into a Patient, a Medical Milestone

Surgeons in Boston have transplanted a kidney from a genetically engineered pig into an ailing 62-year-old man, the first procedure of its kind. If successful, the breakthrough offers hope to hundreds of thousands of Americans whose kidneys have failed. So far, the signs are promising. The new kidney began producing urine shortly after the surgery […]

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Colon Cancer Blood Test Shows Promise for Early Detection

Early detection of colon cancer can prevent a majority of deaths from this disease, possibly as much as 73 percent of them. But just 50 to 75 percent of middle-aged and older adults who should be screened regularly are being tested. One reason, doctors say, is that the screening methods put many people off. There […]

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New Sickle Cell Therapies Will Be Out of Reach Where They Are Needed Most

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval on Friday of two groundbreaking gene therapy treatments for sickle cell disease has brought a rare moment of hope and celebration to people with the agonizing blood disorder. But there is no clear path for the new therapies — one-time treatments so effective in clinical trials that they have […]

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CAR-T, Lifesaving Cancer Treatment, May Sometimes Cause Cancer, FDA Says

A Number That Sums It Up: Thousands of lives have been saved with CAR-T. CAR-T involves removing a type of white blood cell — T cells — from a patient’s blood, then genetically engineering to make proteins — chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) — which allow the T cells to attach to cancer cells and kill […]

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A Simple Way to Save Premature Babies

How It Works: Doctors wait to cut the cord. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists already recommends delaying clamping by 30 to 60 seconds for both full-term and preterm newborns. Preterm babies are those born before 37 weeks of gestation. In preterm infants, delayed clamping leads to improved circulation, less need for blood transfusions […]

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Sickle-Cell Treatment Created With Gene Editing Wins U.K. Approval

Regulators in Britain on Thursday approved the first treatment derived from CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing method. Called Casgevy, the treatment is intended to cure sickle-cell disease and a related condition, beta thalassemia. The manufacturers, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, based in Boston, and CRISPR Therapeutics, based in Switzerland, say about 2,000 patients in Britain with sickle-cell disease or […]

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What to Know About Dengue Fever as Cases Spread to New Places

Cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral illness that can be fatal, are surging around the world. The increase is occurring both in places that have long struggled with the disease and in areas where its spread was unheard-of until the last year or two, including France, Italy and Chad, in central Africa. Last week, […]

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Many Younger Women Are Iron Deficient: Risks, Causes and Symptoms

Iron that isn’t used for hemoglobin or other functions is stored in the bone marrow and liver as a protein called ferritin. When the body’s iron stores dip, the remaining iron is redirected to the maintenance of red blood cells at the expense of heart, brain and muscular functions, Dr. Munro said. If the body […]

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What Is Insulin Resistance and How Do You Know if You Have it?

If you’ve spent time online recently, you’ve likely heard of insulin resistance. People using injectable drugs like Ozempic talk about it. Fitness enthusiasts suggest exercise routines to reverse it. Influencers market supplements that supposedly counter it. But what exactly is insulin resistance and how do you know if you have it? A Crucial Hormone Insulin […]

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How Much Do Patients Need to Know About a Potentially Risky Treatment?

A visiting researcher at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center was startled when he read the warning from the Food and Drug Administration about a product that had been used in spine surgeries at the esteemed Manhattan hospital. The fluid, derived from umbilical cord blood, was not approved for such procedures, the agency cautioned, and its Idaho […]

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