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A new way of genetically altering a patient’s cells to fight cancer has helped desperately ill people with leukemia when every other treatment had failed, researchers reported on Monday in the journal Nature Medicine. The new approach, still experimental, could eventually be given by itself or, more likely, be used in combination treatments — analogous to antiviral “cocktails” for H.I.V. or multidrug regimens of chemotherapy for cancer — to increase the odds of shutting down the disease. (Grady, 11/20)

John Dalman had been in the waiting room at a Loxahatchee, Fla., dermatology clinic for less than 15 minutes when he turned to his wife and told her they needed to leave. Now. “It was like a fight or flight impulse,” he said. His face numbed for skin-cancer surgery, Mr. Dalman, 69, sat surrounded by a half-dozen other patients with bandages on their faces, scalps, necks, arms and legs. (Hafner and Palmer, 11/20)

Our bodies are full of bugs. They’re everywhere, hanging out on our skin, reproducing in our gut, growing on the glistening surface of our eyes. These bacteria, it turns out, don’t just beget other bacteria. They also beget scientific paper after scientific paper, which, in turn, beget headline after headline. But for all our talk of microbiomes, we aren’t all that great at shaping them, says Dr. Timothy Lu, an associate professor of biological engineering and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Boodman, 11/21)

Pregnant women might increase their risk of a stillbirth if they sleep on their backs during their third trimester, a new study has found. The research, published Monday in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, is the largest of its kind and the clearest evidence yet that sleeping conditions during pregnancy could have significant effects on the fetus. (Wan, 11/20)

Decades after they were banned from the airwaves, Big Tobacco companies return to prime-time television this weekend — but not by choice. Under court order, the tobacco industry for the first time will be forced to advertise the deadly, addictive effects of smoking, more than 11 years after a judge ruled that the companies had misled the public about the dangers of cigarettes. (Perrone, 11/21)

Dietary supplements make lots of claims and consumers often believe them: The booming U.S. industry has grown from $9 billion in sales in 2007 to $15 billion this year, according to Euromonitor International, a market research firm. But a new study gives ammunition to critics of the supplements and their potential health risks. (Reddy, 11/20)

Finding the perfect doctor can be a feat for anyone. And a poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health finds that 18 percent of all LGBTQ Americans refrain from seeing a physician for fear of discrimination. One of those people is 20-year-old Alex Galvan. The moment right before he told his doctor earlier this year that he is gay and sexually active felt like a nightmare. (Romero, 11/21)

Research investigating a popular form of surgery aimed at easing chronic shoulder pain doesn't fix the problem, a careful, placebo-controlled study suggests. In the condition known as shoulder impingement, certain movements, such as reaching up to get something off a shelf, for example, or even scratching your own back can be painful and get worse during a night of tossing and turning. (Neighmond, 11/20)

A little spit may help predict whether a child's concussion symptoms will subside in days or persist for weeks. A test that measures fragments of genetic material in saliva was nearly 90 percent accurate in identifying children and adolescents whose symptoms persisted for at least a month, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. That's in contrast to a concussion survey commonly used by doctors that was right less than 70 percent of the time. (Hamilton, 11/20)

For the Black Friday faithful, the excitement begins on Thanksgiving, when eager shoppers line up outside big box and department stores for the chance to grab “doorbuster” sales and “prices slashed” merchandise when the doors open. Black Friday videos posted in recent years show shoppers shoving and shouting, with one temporary worker even trampled to death in 2008. What turns ordinary shoppers into dangerous mobs? Social scientists and psychologists are trying to find out. (Luccheshi, 11/21)

A clinical trial that involved Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital may help produce an effective treatment for thousands of stroke victims nationally. For patients suffering a stroke, which occurs when blood flow to an area of brain is cut off, current guidelines recommend blood clot removal only within six hours of the onset of the event. (Miller, 11/20)