A recent increase in severe reactions to the street drug "Ecstasy" has prompted the San Francisco division of California Poison Control System (CPCS) to renew alerts about the drug's dangers.

Cancer screening guidelines that recommend a test based on age are too simplistic, argues a new study from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

HIV-positive women are three times more likely than other women to develop lesions that can lead to anal cancer, new research shows. The greater risk is due at least in part to weakened immune defenses against the common sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV).

HIV that has become resistant to powerful drugs called protease inhibitors may not be a dire sign of decline after all, researchers from the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology have shown.

Many older adults dread colon cancer screening, because the most effective screening tool, colonoscopy, is uncomfortable and invasive. A new study from San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center shows that a faster, safer, and potentially more pleasant technique works just as well.

A single exposure to cocaine triggers a week-long surge of activity in a brain region central to the development of addiction, according to new research on mice published this week in Nature. The changes may prime the brain for addiction, the researchers say.

A drug widely prescribed as the sole treatment for asthma has been found to be incapable by itself of preventing asthma attacks or controlling the airway inflammation thought to lead to deteriorated lung function and gradual worsening of asthma.

The Center for Mothers and Newborns and UCSF Children's Medical Center will star in a new documentary that features high-risk deliveries and natural childbirth, a "miracle" baby born after five miscarriages...

CHICAGO - Many frail elderly women who get routine mammography suffer significant burdens from the screening procedure with little chance to benefit from it, says a study from researchers at San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Pediatricians know that most of the health damaging threats to children in their teenaged years can be prevented if teens avoid dangerous risks and habits. Training can increase the number of times that health providers will put that knowledge into practice.