Marilynn Marchione

Scientists for the first time have tried editing a gene inside the body in a bold attempt to permanently change a person’s DNA to try to cure a disease. The experiment was done Monday in California on 44-year-old Brian Madeux. Through an IV, he received billions of copies of a corrective gene and a genetic tool to cut his DNA in a precise spot. “It’s kind of humbling” to be the first to test this, said Madeux, who has a metabolic disease called Hunter syndrome. “I’m willing to take that risk. Hopefully it will help me and other people.”...

The biopsy shows cancer, so you have to act fast, right? Not necessarily, if it’s a prostate tumor. Men increasingly have choices if their cancer is found at an early stage, as most cases in the U.S. are. They can treat it right away or monitor with periodic tests and treat later if it worsens or causes symptoms. Now, long-term results are in from one of the few studies comparing these options in men with tumors confined to the prostate. After 20 years, death rates were roughly similar for those who had immediate surgery and those initially assigned to...

An experimental Merck drug safely boosted good cholesterol to record highs while dropping bad cholesterol to unprecedented lows in a study that stunned researchers and renewed hopes for an entirely new way of lowering heart risks. “We are the most excited we have been in decades” about a novel drug, said the study’s leader, Dr. Christopher Cannon, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “This could really be the next big thing.” The drug, anacetrapib (an-uh-SEHT’-ruh-pihb), won’t be on the market anytime soon. It needs more testing to see if its dramatic effects on cholesterol will translate into fewer...