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An important transition is happening across the United States: Cancer was the leading cause of death in more counties in 2015 than 13 years earlier, a new study finds. However, the opposite was true for heart disease during that period; fewer counties reported it as the top killer. In fact, cancer will replace heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States within two years, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projections referenced in the study, published Monday in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine. (Scutti, 11/12)

Use of immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat cancer is growing rapidly — and with it, so is a common side effect: colitis. A small new study suggests fecal transplants might help, but experts caution the potential treatment needs to be studied much more. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are a class of immunotherapy drugs that unleash the immune system to attack cancer cells. For some some patients on the drugs, colitis — inflammation in the colon that can cause bleeding, pain, diarrhea, and dehydration — can become so severe that some patients have to pause their cancer treatment while clinicians try to get the inflammation in check. (Thielking, 11/12)

Parents of children who had a horrifying polio-like illness are accusing the Centers for Disease Control of hiding the deaths of two children who suffered from the condition. The parents say by not publicly acknowledging the two deaths, the agency is intentionally downplaying the severity of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a disease that paralyzes healthy children in a matter of hours. (Cohen, 11/12)

A settlement announced Monday between the N.H.L. and several hundred retired hockey players who accused the league of hiding the dangers of repeated head hits did little to quell the emotional intensity surrounding the issue. The deal, which must be approved by the 318 former players who joined the lawsuit, includes free neuropsychological tests, up to $75,000 for medical treatment, a potential cash payment of about $20,000 a player, and the establishment of a Common Good Fund to help other players in need. (Belson, 11/12)

You may be shocked by what's living in your home — the bacteria, the fungi, viruses, parasites and insects. Probably many more organisms than you imagined. "Every surface; every bit of air; every bit of water in your home is alive," says Rob Dunn, a professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "The average house has thousands of species." (Gross, 11/12)

More women and girls in poor countries are using modern contraception, signifying progress in efforts to involve women in family planning, according to a report released Monday. The number of women and girls using contraceptives in 69 of the world's poorest countries surpassed 317 million in 2018, representing 46 million more users than in 2012, said the report by Family Planning 2020, a U.N.-backed global advocacy group working to promote rights-based family planning. (11/12)

“Boy Erased,” a new film based on a memoir by Garrard Conley, tells the story of a young man who is forced by his parents to attend a gay conversion therapy program. Jeffrey Brown speaks to Conley about how his own experience grappling with religion and sexual identity influenced the film, and with Joel Edgerton, its director. (Brown, 11/12)