Viruses, Infections & Disease, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 10, 2020

This woman was in hospice for cancer. Energy drinks nearly killed her.

A woman receiving end-of-life hospice care took a turn for the worse not because she had cancer but due to the excessive amount of energy drinks she had recently consumed, a new case report finds. At first, the woman's doctors at hospice care thought her unexpected medical problems most likely...

Apr 29, 2020

What is chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses chemicals to kill harmful, cancerous cells and prevent them from reproducing. Chemotherapy has become a mainstay for treating rapidly spreading cancers and, combined with other therapies, can help force cancer into remission or keep it from spreading further, said Dr. Deanna...

Sep 30, 2020

Timothy Ray Brown, 1st person cured of HIV, dies after cancer relapse

Timothy Ray Brown, famous for being the first person to be cured of HIV, has died from cancer at age 54. Known as the Berlin patient, Brown was diagnosed with both HIV and acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, while living in Berlin more than a...

Oct 15, 2020

Drug tricks cancer cells by impersonating a virus

A new cancer drug helps the immune system destroy tumors by impersonating a virus and infecting cancer cells. The drug, called BO-112, is in human trials and mimics the structure of a double-stranded RNA molecule, a type of genetic material found in some viruses. Viruses inject their RNA into cells...

Jan 12, 2021

Parasite found in cat poop linked to higher brain cancer risk in humans

Here's another reason to cook your meat and take care around cat litter: The parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which reproduces in cats and most often spreads to humans through raw meat, may increase the risk of brain cancer in humans, a new study suggests. The researchers found a link between the...

Jan 15, 2021

2 infants inhaled cancer cells from mothers during birth

Two infants in Japan may have developed lung cancer after inhaling cancer cells from their mothers at birth, according to a new case report. About 1 in 1,000 babies are born to mothers who have cancer, but only about one in 500,000 of these newborns develops cancer from their mother....

Jan 21, 2021

Cancer vaccine helped keep melanoma under control for years in small study

A personalized cancer vaccine may help keep a deadly form of skin cancer from growing for years, a small new study in humans suggests. Unlike vaccines that prevent infections, such as measles and influenza, cancer vaccines are a form of immunotherapy that take down cancer cells that already exist. The...

Feb 4, 2021

Cancer patients weren't responding to therapy. Then they got a poop transplant.

For some cancer patients, a poop transplant could boost the positive effects of immunotherapy, a treatment designed to rally the immune system against cancer cells. Not all cancer patients respond to immunotherapy drugs. For example, only about 40% of patients with advanced melanoma, a type of skin cancer, reap long-term...

May 27, 2021

Cancer-causing chemical found in 78 sunscreen products

An independent testing lab has detected the chemical benzene, a known human carcinogen, in 78 sunscreen products and is now calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recall the products. The lab, Valisure, checks medications and health care products for quality. Recently, the company tested nearly 300...

Sep 7, 2021

Antibiotics may raise colon cancer risk, massive study suggests

Taking antibiotic drugs may raise the risk of developing colon cancer five to 10 years down the line, according to a new study of more than 40,000 cancer cases in Sweden. Past studies hinted that antibiotics can cause lasting changes to the gut microbiome — the community of microbes that...

Sep 28, 2021

What is cancer?

Cancer is a difficult and often misunderstood condition. A diagnosis of cancer might feel like a death sentence, but the truth can be much more complicated. Cancer is an umbrella term for any uncontrolled growth (sometimes called a tumor) in the body that spreads out from where it started. This...

Nov 4, 2021

HPV vaccine slashes cervical cancer rates by 87% among women in the UK

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine reduced cervical cancer cases by 87% among women in the U.K. who received the vaccine when they were 12 or 13 years old, according to a new study. These new findings are based on follow-up data from a vaccination program that began in the U.K....

Dec 14, 2021

Dormant cancer cells may 'reawaken' due to change in this key protein

Cancer cells may suddenly reawaken and spread throughout the body after years of lying dormant. Now, scientists may be closer to understanding why. In a new study published Monday (Dec. 13) in Nature Cancer, scientists found that in mice, dormant cancer cells were surrounded by larger amounts of a specific...

Jan 20, 2022

Bizarre knotted DNA structures linked to cancer in mice

Oddly tangled and looped DNA structures could be linked to cancer, according to a new study in mice. DNA typically looks like a twisted ladder. But the loss of key enzymes in the body causes the genetic molecule to become tangled up in bizarre loops and knots, and at least...

Apr 6, 2022

Cancer diagnosis: Detection, testing and research

A cancer diagnosis, of one form or another, will be received by 27.5 million people each year by 2040, research suggests. Four of the most common types of cancer are breast, lung, prostate and bowel cancer, however there are more than 200 types in total. With such a broad range...