U.S. blood bank officials are recommending more restrictive guidelines for red blood cell transfusions because evidence shows lowering the threshold still protects the health of patients.

New oral blood thinner rivaroxaban ( Xarelto ) has been shown to be safer for treating a pulmonary embolism as compared to enoxaparin ( Lovenox ) injections, and was found to be just as effective.

Vitamin A derivatives, drugs known as retinoids , have been used successfully to treat certain types of leukemia. Not all forms of the disease respond to them, though. Scientists have discovered that adding another medication may overcome this resistance.

Targeted drugs work by attacking and shutting down the molecular activities that keep cancers thriving and growing. These drugs have saved the lives of thousands of people with cancer. But they don't work in some people.

A long-term risk analysis of Hodgkin lymphoma patients shows that the traditional practice of using radiation together with chemotherapy may be too much, causing more problems without extending life expectancy.

Part of the process of developing and testing drugs involves seeing if treatments work in similar conditions, and science is full of surprises.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of childhood cancer, diagnosed in some 5,000 children every year in the United States.

The computational power available to researchers has grown exponentially over the years, allowing broad analysis of genetics involved in cancer to get new ideas for exploring new methods of therapy.

Several groups looking at data from broad genetic studies have noticed differences in cancer risk for different populations according to ethnic make up.

A project to sequence genetic mutations in a particularly aggressive form of childhood leukemia developed a list of common mutations - the first step in developing adequate pharmaceutical targeted therapy.