Treatments : Shots - Health News Here you can find out how the practice of medicine is changing. We pull together the latest research on medical tests, drugs and other therapies.
Shots - Health News

Shots

Health News From NPR

Treatments

A doctor assesses a radio surgery treatment plan for a patient with lung cancer, using a 4D CAT scan. Lung cancer survival rates have increased lately. Ryan McFadden/MediaNews Group via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Ryan McFadden/MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Lung cancer survival rates rise, but low screening rates leave many people at risk

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1212801700/1212836754" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Preliminary results from a study show that gene-editing technology can be used to successfully treat a genetic disorder that increases the risk of heart disease. Gerardo Huitrón/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Gerardo Huitrón/Getty Images

For the first time, gene-editing provides hints for lowering cholesterol

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1211672034/1212589391" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Davey Bauer was near death six months ago after the flu and another bacterial infection wasted his lungs. Now he says he's feeling stronger each day as he recovers from a double lung transplant. José M. Osorio/Northwestern Medicine hide caption

toggle caption
José M. Osorio/Northwestern Medicine

A tornado damaged a Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in Rocky Mount, N.C., in July. The facility makes almost 25% of Pfizer's sterile injectable medicines used in the U.S. Sean Rayford/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Chronic drug shortages stress hospitals and patients

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1210196701/1210202201" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

"It's really life-changing," says Victoria Gray, when describing the gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease that she received as part of a clinical trial in 2019. Orlando Gili for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Orlando Gili for NPR

FDA advisers see no roadblocks for gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1208041252/1209644582" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Dr. Michael Mansour, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, is testing an AI-enhanced database he uses to help make diagnoses. Craig LeMoult/GBH hide caption

toggle caption
Craig LeMoult/GBH

AI could help doctors make better diagnoses

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1208326892/1208391515" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Scientists have built an enormous atlas of the human brain that could help them chart a path toward preventing and treating many different neurological disorders. Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images

Scientists built the largest-ever map of the human brain. Here's what they found

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1205780690/1205807169" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Secretary-General of the Nobel Assembly Thomas Perlmann speaks in front of a picture of Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images

Nobel Prize goes to scientists who made mRNA COVID vaccines possible

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1202941256/1202954113" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

New research probes the relationship between certain genes and brain disorders like autism and schizophrenia. Jill George / NIH hide caption

toggle caption
Jill George / NIH

Brain cells, interrupted: How some genes may cause autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1202749791/1202953643" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Developing mouse egg cells glow on the computerized display of a microscope. These were grown using stem cells in Katsuhiko Hayashi's lab at Osaka University. Kosuke Okahara for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Kosuke Okahara for NPR

Japanese scientists race to create human eggs and sperm in the lab

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1200105467/1202072979" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

There's high demand for this fall's COVID shots, which offer protection against circulating variants of omicron. But there's been some distribution hiccups. Rogelio V. Solis/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Rogelio V. Solis/AP

This year's COVID vaccine rollout is off to a bumpy start, despite high demand

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1202055493/1202069348" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Anti-abortion demonstrators gather outside Planned Parenthood's Water Street Health Center in Milwaukee on Monday, Sept. 2023. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin began offering abortions at the clinic that day after not doing so for more than a year. Margaret Faust/ WPR hide caption

toggle caption
Margaret Faust/ WPR

Researchers looking for root causes of long COVID work in the autopsy suite inside the Clinical Center at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A large study of an experimental Alzheimer's drug made by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co. appears to slow worsening of the degenerative brain disease. Darron Cummings/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Darron Cummings/AP

An experimental Alzheimer's drug outperforms one just approved by the FDA

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1188075646/1188183570" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Conception's chief scientific officer, Pablo Hurtado, examines very early primordial germ cells under a microscope in a company lab in Berkeley, California. Laura Morton for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Laura Morton for NPR

Startup aims to make lab-grown human eggs, transforming options for creating families

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1184298351/1187354670" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Calliope Holingue is researching the microbiome among kids with autism. She's part of a growing field of research seeking to understand the gut-brain axis. Kennedy Krieger Institute hide caption

toggle caption
Kennedy Krieger Institute

Hepatitis C can cause severe liver damage and leads to about 15,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. James Cavallini/BSIP/Universal Images hide caption

toggle caption
James Cavallini/BSIP/Universal Images

Hepatitis C can be cured. So why aren't more people getting treatment?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1185131972/1185266448" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

In patients with Alzheimer's disease, a substance called beta-amyloid can form toxic clumps in between neurons. Drugs like lecanemab are designed to remove amyloid-beta from the brain. National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. hide caption

toggle caption
National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health.

An Alzheimer's drug is on the way, but getting it may still be tough. Here's why

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1184071997/1184268073" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

The Food and Drug Administration approved the first gene therapy to treat the most common form of muscular dystrophy. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

Muscular dystrophy patients get first gene therapy

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1183576268/1183842842" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

In Huntington's disease, proteins form toxic clumps that kill brain cells. Stowers Institute for Medical Research hide caption

toggle caption
Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Huntington's spreads like 'fire in the brain.' Scientists say they've found the spark

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1182881226/1183098072" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript