Triumphs and Challenges

• Dr Christian Barnard was a South African surgeon specializing in cardiac or heart surgery
• The first human heart transplant was performed by Dr Christian Barnard


  1967
• The patient of the first human heart transplant lived for 18 days after the surgery
• The heart transplant itself was successful, but the patient died from another illness due to immunosuppressant drugs
• Types of transplants available

  • Cancerous lungs
  • Liver
  • Kidney
  • Many more
• Transplants have become controversial due to ethical issues
• Replacing cancerous lungs with a transplant from a healthy donor


  Is now possible
• Development of lung cancer after smoking for a long period of time

  Raises ethical questions about giving new lungs to the patient
• Organ donation


  Should useful organs be taken from the dead unless they opt out
• One of the biggest challenges in medical science is the treatment and cure of cancer
• Treatments developed in the 20th century for cancer

  • Chemotherapy
  • Radiotherapy
• Chemotherapy


  Patients are injected with different drugs to shrink the tumor, prevent reoccurrence, or provide relief from symptoms
• Radiotherapy


  Concentrated waves of radiation are aimed at the tumor to shrink it or prevent growth
• Radiotherapy can have unpleasant side effects
• Survival rates for cancer patients have improved compared to 50 years ago
• Genetic research is advancing, and gene therapy is a modern possibility
• Genetic research is used to help doctors prescribe more effective treatments based on individual genetic mutations in lung cancer patients
• Chemotherapy drugs

  • Some work better in lung cancer patients whose tumors have a certain genetic mutation
• Treatment can be more effective if it is prescribed for the individual rather than on a one-size-fits-all basis
• Pharmacogenomics


  The idea of tailoring treatments to a person's DNA
• Some bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, for example, MRSA
• Bacteria are evolving and mutating so that they no longer get killed by antibiotics
• Scientists fear that an increasing number of germs no longer respond to antibiotics
• Without work to develop new drugs, some drug-resistant illnesses may not be treatable at all
• There is much research being done about the problem of drug-resistant illnesses, but solutions haven't been found yet
• Life expectancy in the UK is 79, while in the Central African Republic, it is only 45
• Inequality in the supply and administering of COVID-19 vaccines between richer and developing countries has been highlighted
• Developments in medicine between the mid-20th century and the present have been rapid and dramatic
• Developments in medicine

  • Organ transplants
  • Radiotherapy
  • Chemotherapy
• There are still many challenges in medicine, including new and emerging or existing illnesses with no cure, drug-resistant germs, and global inequality
• The progress in medicine in the last half a century or so is still dramatic
• The future of medicine is uncertain, but progress gives hope for the next 50 years