The No. 1 and 2 causes of death remain the same, but there have been a number of notable changes. And now there's a new disease to assess on the global landscape: COVID-19.
Scientists have identified an aggressive bone cancer — for the first time — in the fibula of a dinosaur that lived 76 to 77 million years ago. The diagnosis sheds new light on dinosaurs and disease.
For many cancer patients, daily life can feel full of risky choices involving work, family, friends and money. Nearly every option pits the risks of catching the coronavirus against other downsides.
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan about his new book Still Standing: Surviving Cancer, Riots, a Global Pandemic, and the Toxic Politics That Divide America.
When Lauren Jenkins learned a coworker had tested positive for the coronavirus, she did what once would've seemed unthinkable — separating from her two young boys and a husband with stage IV cancer.
With states starting to reopen, bans on "nonessential" surgeries are beginning to lift, too. But there's a huge backlog of cases that have only gotten more urgent and heartbreaking for many patients.
COVID-19 has led to the suspension of many clinical studies of experimental treatments. About a quarter of the stopped trials involved new cancer treatments, an NPR analysis finds.
Cancer makes you face your mortality. Add in coronavirus and there's even more stress. What do people with cancer need to get by? And what can they teach us about coping?
Residents say their relatives have been unable to get care for cancer, for childhood diseases and more as Wuhan and other cities put a priority on treating COVID-19 patients.
The U.S. cancer death rate dropped more than 2% between 2016 and 2017, the biggest single-year drop ever, according to the American Cancer Society. Better treatment for lung cancer is a factor.
For older, often frail cancer patients, geriatric assessments can help doctors gauge the patients' physical, mental and functional capacity, and choose an appropriate treatment approach.
Attempts to use the gene-editing tool CRISPR to develop a treatment for cancer seem safe and feasible in the earliest findings from the first three patients. "So far, so good," scientists say.
A suite of new research shows the country beating infectious diseases over the last two decades. But deaths from lifestyle-related diseases like cancer and diabetes are on the rise.
Researchers say certain brain cancers tap electrical signals from healthy cells to fuel their growth. The finding could lead to treatments for deadly tumors like the one that killed Sen. John McCain.
The 86-year-old justice just wrapped up weeks of treatment after a new cancerous tumor was found on her pancreas. Doctors say there's no evidence of cancer elsewhere.
An interdisciplinary team in San Francisco uses acupressure, massage, counseling and other methods, as well as medicine, to help kids get relief from chronic pain. But such pediatric centers are rare.
For children in developing countries, cancer care is largely out of reach. But new research is challenging assumptions that it's too costly and complicated.
The Supreme Court justice sat down for an interview with NPR's Nina Totenberg and said that despite battling cancer for a third time earlier this year, she's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Scientists are making progress in identifying environmental hazards that contribute to cancer. Researchers say many cases could be avoided if the work is accelerated.
As the rural town of Fort Scott, Kan., grapples with the closure of its hospital, cancer patients bear a heavy burden. They now have to go elsewhere for treatments they used to get locally.
