Rob Stein

Mary-Claire King, who identified the first breast cancer gene, calls for more women to be screened for genetic mutations. Now, doctors only recommend women who have a family history get screened.

Genetic tests are recommended for women with a family history of breast cancer. One researcher says all women should be screened, but others say there's not enough evidence that they are at risk.

Scientists are reporting strong evidence that the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp may be effective for treating victims of the devastating disease.

A study involving 18 rhesus macaque monkeys, published Friday in the journal Nature, found that the drug saved 100 percent of the animals even if they didn't receive ...

Even just the word Ebola is kind of terrifying. Why? Hollywood has a lot to do with it. But Ebola outbreaks also have all the ingredients for what one psychologist calls the "dread factor."

Two U.S. missionaries who caught the Ebola virus in Liberia have been discharged from an Atlanta hospital after fully recovering. They were the first known Ebola patients flown to the...

At a drive-through Starbucks in St. Petersburg, Fla., a chain of generosity included hundreds of customers.

Location, location, location too often trumps medical need, some doctors say. But another solution to making the distribution of scarce organs fairer worries some transplant surgeons and patients.

The string of genes that make a man a man used to be much bigger, and some geneticists say it may be wasting away. Back off, others say. Y has been stable — and crucial — for millennia.

You and your friends may have more than music and movies in common. Friends typically have more genetic similarities than strangers, researchers say. That may have evolutionary advantages.

Contraception is the latest in a long line of often bitter history of balancing the right of conscience with the needs of society. (This piece first aired on Feb. 16, 2012 on All Things Considered.)

A prestigious scientific journal Wednesday took the unusual step of retracting some high-profile research that had generated international excitement about stem cell research.

The British scientific journal Nature retracted two papers published in January by scientists at the Riken research institute in Japan and at Harvard Medical School ...

Medicine is making use of 3-D printing more and more. Researchers are creating three-dimensional models of body parts to help plan surgeries; they're even creating replacement body pa...

After the Food and Drug Administration said that antidepressants could spur suicidal thinking in teens, doctors prescribed the drugs less often. The change may have led to more suicides.

Insulin monitors and pumps are getting better, but a person with diabetes will tell you they're far from ideal. Potential solutions include one that delivers two hormones to control blood sugar.

Cigarette smoking among U.S. high school students has dropped to the lowest level in 22 years, federal health officials reported Thursday.

The percentage of students who reported smoking a cigarette at least one day in the last 30 days fell to 15.7 percent in 2013, according to the National ...

The recent FDA approval of an HPV test to screen for cervical cancer has ignited debate among doctors. Some say the viral test will catch cancers earlier. Others warn it increases needless biopsies.

Federal health officials reported over the weekend that the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, had spread from one person to another for the first time in the U.S.

The second U.S. case of a dangerous new virus from the Middle East has been found in Florida, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

The patient is a health care worker from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who developed symptoms May 1 while traveling to Orlando, Fla., to ...

"If smallpox is outlawed, only outlaws will have smallpox," says one NIH virologist. Others say keeping vials of deadly virus just invites a horrific accident or theft. WHO is about to vote — again.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the first case of Middle Eastern Respiratory Virus, or MERS, has been confirmed in the U.S. A health care worker in Indiana who rec...