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The number of lives lost around the world due to infections that are resistant to the medications intended to treat them could increase nearly 70% by 2050, a new study projects, further showing the burden of the ongoing superbug crisis. (Howard, 9/16)

Peering through his microscope in 1910, the Franco-Canadian microbiologist Félix d’Hérelle noticed some “clear spots” in his bacterial cultures, an anomaly that turned out to be viruses preying on the bacteria. Years later, d’Hérelle would come to use these viruses, which he called bacteriophages, to treat patients plagued with dysentery after World War I. ... But now, with bacteria evolving resistance to more and more antibiotics, phage therapy is drawing a second look from researchers—sometimes with a novel twist. (Asanga, 9/15)

Metformin, a common medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, may also help reduce the viral reservoir in people living with HIV who are undergoing antiretroviral therapy. The authors of the September 2024 study, which was published in the journal iScience, state that in previous studies, when people took the drug for three months, there were improvements in immunity and reductions in inflammation. (Schimelpfening, 9/16)

When someone’s heart doesn’t beat quite right, an implantable defibrillator can save their life. The devices can jump-start a misbehaving heart, resetting its normal rhythm — unless they malfunction first. In 2022, Medtronic recalled more than 85,000 of the devices after dozens of complaints that a technical glitch could stop them from delivering the right, high-voltage shock. (Palmer, 9/16)

A week after Apple held an event revealing its new iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPod models, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved an Apple Watch function that can detect sleep apnea in device-wearers. The sleep apnea detection tool comes four days before the launch date of Apple's new Series 10 watch, which will be released on September 20. Those with existing Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models can use the sleep apnea feature starting today, however, with download of Apple's newly released watchOS 11 software. (Cerullo, 9/16)

A state judge in Oregon has overturned a jury's $260 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she got mesothelioma, a deadly cancer linked to asbestos exposure, from inhaling the company's talc powder, the company said on Monday. (Pierson, 9/16)

For entrepreneur and philanthropist Emmet Stephenson Jr., seeing his wife and friends die from pancreatic cancer served as a wake-up call. His wife, Toni, a patient at Duarte, Calif.-based cancer center City of Hope, died at 74 after a four-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Now Emmet and his daughter Tessa are donating a historic $150 million to the City of Hope to help advance research into finding a cure for what’s known as the “silent killer.” (Wong, 9/17)

Ten years ago, a new type of cancer treatment reached the market. It worked by rousing the body’s own immune cells to attack tumors. Within months, regulators had approved two of the treatments, at first for melanoma. (Joseph, 9/16)

Approximately 600 times a day, the esophagus ferries whatever is in your mouth down to your stomach. It’s usually a one-way route, but sometimes acid escapes the stomach and travels back up. That can damage the cells lining the esophagus, prompting them to grow back with genetic mistakes. About 22,370 times a year in the United States, those mistakes culminate in cancer. Esophageal cancer can be cured if it’s discovered and treated before it burrows in deep or spreads to other organs. But that’s rarely the case. (Kaplan, 9/16)