BOSTON (AP) — A decade after a group of smokers from Massachusetts sued Philip Morris USA to try to force the cigarette maker to pay for lung cancer screenings, the case will finally be heard by a jury. Smokers in the class-action lawsuit allege Philip Morris manufactured a defective cigarette knowing it could have made … Continue reading
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — When medical marijuana became available this month in New York, Brittany Barger was one of the first patients to navigate the state’s rules and make it through a dispensary door. “When you’re as sick as I am, you’ll try anything,” said Barger, who has ovarian cancer that has spread through … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Harking back to America’s triumphant race into space, the Obama administration is launching what it calls a “moonshot” effort to cure cancer. Don’t expect miracles in the administration’s last months in office. “It probably won’t be cured in my lifetime, but I think it’ll be cured in yours,” President Barack Obama told … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — A tool to edit human genes is nowhere near ready to use for pregnancy — but altering early embryos as part of careful laboratory research should be allowed as scientists and society continue to grapple with the ethical questions surrounding this revolutionary technology, organizers of an international summit concluded Thursday. “It would … Continue reading
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Linda Horan, diagnosed in July with late-stage lung cancer, says she may be dead before New Hampshire opens its first medical marijuana dispensaries early next year. She wants a judge to order the state to grant her a medical marijuana identification card now so she can buy marijuana legally in Maine. … Continue reading
PARIS (AP) — Bacon, hot dogs and cold cuts are under fire: The World Health Organization threw its global weight behind years of experts’ warnings and declared Monday that processed meats raise the risk of colon and stomach cancer and that red meat is probably harmful, too. Meat producers are angry, vegetarians are feeling vindicated, … Continue reading
PARIS (AP) — Hot dogs, bacon, cold cuts and other processed meats raise the risk of colon, stomach and other cancers, and red meat probably contributes to the disease, too, the World Health Organization said Monday, throwing its considerable authority behind what many doctors have been warning for years. WHO’s cancer agency analyzed decades of … Continue reading
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Federal regulators are pulling the plug on a five-year study of the risk of cancer in communities around six U.S. nuclear plants and a nuclear fuel site. Remaining work on a pilot study would take too long, at more than three years, and cost too much, at $8 million, the Nuclear … Continue reading
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Federal regulators are pulling the plug on a five-year study of the risk of cancer in communities around six U.S. nuclear plants and a nuclear fuel site. Remaining work on a pilot study would take too long, at more than three years, and cost too much, at $8 million, the Nuclear … Continue reading
CHICAGO (AP) — The federal government is launching a very different kind of cancer study that will assign patients drugs based on what genes drive their tumors rather than the type. The National Cancer Institute’s NCI-MATCH trial will be a massive precision medicine experiment at more than 2,400 sites around the country. Starting in July, … Continue reading
CHICAGO (AP) — Efforts are underway to raise about $2.5 million to create a center named for late film critic Roger Ebert in the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, officials announced Thursday. Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times who graduated from the University … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — With patients facing greater exposure to the high cost of new medications, President Barack Obama on Monday called for government to use its buying power to squeeze drug companies for lower prices. Obama’s budget asks Congress to authorize Medicare to negotiate on behalf of its beneficiaries for so-called “specialty” drugs … Continue reading
GLENDIVE, Mont. (AP) — Eastern Montana residents rushed to stock up on bottled water Tuesday after authorities detected a cancer-causing component of oil in public water supplies downstream of a Yellowstone River pipeline spill. Elevated levels of benzene were found in water samples from a treatment plant that serves about 6,000 people in the … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — James Taylor and Paul Simon paid tribute to late jazz great Michael Brecker with performances and kind words at a cancer benefit for their friend who died in 2007. Taylor, who Brecker’s widow said had the flu, performed “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” — the first song he played … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 