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The cost of cancer treatment is skyrocketing both for individual patients and the nation, a new analysis shows. From 1990 to 2008, spending on cancer care soared to more than $90 billion from $27 billion.

At South Miami Hospital, 19 surgeons are on track to perform more than 1,000 robotic surgeries this year. Since its program began in 2007, hospital executives say it has become one of the world's busiest centers for surgeries using the robots. The officials say the hospital ranks fifth in the combined total of gynecologic, prostate, thoracic, bariatric, colorectal, and heart surgeries performed with robots.

The coronary angiogram, a widely used test to detect blockages in the heart's arteries, often turns up little or no evidence of disease, a new study found, suggesting that patients are frequently exposed unnecessarily to the risks and costs of the invasive examination.

Just months after saying it was phasing out an artificial hip implant because of slowing sales, a unit of Johnson & Johnson has warned doctors that the device appears to have a high early failure rate in some patients.

The number of cosmetic-surgery procedures in the U.S. sagged for the second year in a row in 2009, according to an annual survey released by a plastic surgeons' association.

New guidelines for prostate cancer screening emphasize that physicians should better educate men about both the risks and benefits of using the PSA test for screening.

Some of the nation's leading orthopedic surgeons have reduced or stopped use of a popular category of artificial hips amid concerns that the devices are causing severe tissue and bone damage in some patients, often requiring replacement surgery within a year or two.

A nationwide push is underway to lower radiation exposure from CT scans, amid growing concern about the risks of cancer linked to the high-powered imaging technology, the Wall Street Journal Health Blog reports.