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Experimental Blood Thinner May Help Prevent Stroke, Without the Bleeding Risk

Researchers say an experimental stroke drug prevented blood clots without the typical side effect of blood...
Why a Knee Replacement Can Go Bad

British researchers have pinpointed which factors put knee replacement patients at high risk for severe infection...
With Weeks to Live, Many Cancer Patients Try Useless Treatments

Learning you have a cancer that looks imminently terminal is tough news to swallow. And new...

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Are You Living with Psoriasis?

A growing knowledge of the skin disease called psoriasis is leading to greater treatment choices, including personalized therapies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports.

Psoriasis is an immune system disorder that causes overproduction of skin cells, resulting in scaling, pain, swelling, redness and heat. The condition affects about 7.5 million Americans.

“As we better understand the disease, researchers know more about what specific factors to target in order to develop effective treatments,” FDA dermatologist Dr. Melinda McCord said in an agency news release.

There is no cure for psoriasis, so the main goals of treatments are to stop skin cell overproduction and reduce inflammation. Current therapies include medicines applied to the skin (topical), light treatment (phototherapy), or drugs taken by mouth or given by injection.

Doctors used to take a step-by-step approach, starting patients with mild to moderate psoriasis on topical therapy. If that was ineffective, doctors moved on to phototherapy or drug treatment.