Five medical breakthroughs of 2024

Every day, the world's scientists and researchers are working to improve human health, develop medical knowledge, and find cures and treatments that will, ultimately, improve outcomes for patients. Here are five key medical breakthroughs from this year.

Bespoke drugs for Alzheimer's patients

The leading cause of dementia, Alzheimer's disease affects about seven million people in Europe. There is currently no cure, so treatment is focused on slowing down its progression and managing the symptoms. A recent Dutch study has raised hopes that this kind of treatment could become much more personalised.

The Dutch researchers identified five "molecular subtypes" of Alzheimer's, each of which has "clear differences" in its genetics and in "the clinical characteristics" that patients display, said LiveScience.

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Using mass spectrometry, the researchers were able to sort more than 400 Alzheimer's patients into these five subtypes, according to the different "levels of specific proteins in their cerebrospinal fluid", a clear liquid that flows around the brain and spinal cord. It's these proteins that are associated with the biological processes that "get derailed in Alzheimer's".

The study findings represent "an important step" towards being able to give each Alzheimer's patient "the best drug for them at the right stage of their disease".

'Gamechanger' for asthma and lung disease

Doctors are hailing a new treatment for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) attacks as "the first breakthrough for 50 years". It could be a "gamechanger", said The Guardian.

Respiratory medicine specialists, running a trial published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, found that a single, high-dose injection of benralizumab was more effective than the current steroid-tablets treatment at managing the particular type of flare-up behind 50% of asthma attacks and 30% of COPD attacks. The injection also cut "the need for further treatment by 30%".

Benralizumab is already used, at a low dose, as a repeat treatment for severe asthma but these trial results for its new use could be "transformative for millions of people with asthma and COPD around the world".

This trial "shows massive promise," the study's lead author Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan, clinical senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia, told The Guardian. "COPD is the third leading cause of death worldwide but treatment for the condition is stuck in the 20th century."

Saliva test for prostate cancer

A simple at-home spit test could soon identify the men who are most at risk of developing prostate cancer.

There is currently no national screening programme for prostate cancer, which "claims around 12,000 lives a year", said the BBC. There is a blood test GPs can request but it is "not considered accurate enough" and can sometimes even falsely identify cancer.

The new test "looks through the DNA" in a saliva sample to identify "a range of small genetic changes linked to prostate cancer," said Cancer Research UK. Preliminary study results suggest that the saliva test produces "fewer false positives" and picks up "a higher proportion of aggressive cancers" than the blood test, said the BBC.

The study, which has not yet been published, involved more than 6,000 European men aged 55 to 69 – the age range at which the risk of prostate cancer is increased. The researchers, from London's Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, believe this cheap new test "could help catch the disease earlier and save lives".

The test is "simple from the patient's point of view", consultant urologist Prof Caroline Moore told the BBC. You "get sent a tube, put your saliva sample into it and post it off". The next step is more research to confirm if the test can be rolled out at scale.

'Yoga pill' for anxiety and depression

A "breakthrough brain-circuit discovery" could lead to the development of new drugs for anxiety, stress and panic disorders, said The Independent. Potentially, there could even be "a pill providing the benefits of yoga".

US researchers have identified a specific brain pathway which allows conscious slowing of the breath, so helping to reduce negative emotions such as anxiety. This discovery validates the "self-soothe" slow-breathing techniques that "are the central part of practices like mindfulness and yoga" – but which, until now, neuroscientists have "little understood" in terms of how they work in the brain.

The findings of this study, published in Nature Neuroscience, could mean that, in the future, the "specific set of brain cells" involved could be "targeted with drugs", and "lead to long-term solutions for people with anxiety and stress".

The study focused on mice brains, so there is more research ahead. But "we now have a potentially targetable brain circuit for creating therapeutics that could instantly slow breathing and initiate a peaceful, meditative state", said study author Sung Han, associate professor at the Salk Institute in California.

Personalised cancer vaccines

Patients in England who are being treated for cancer are taking part in NHS trials of a "world-first" personalised cancer vaccine.

The mRNA vaccine is "custom-built" for each eligible patient and works "by training the immune system to recognise, destroy and prevent the spread of cancer cells", said NHS England.

The "game-changing jabs, which aim to provide a permanent cure", are "tailored to the individual's tumours", said The Guardian.

The trials, which are running at 30 sites across England in partnership with the mRNA vaccine research company BioNTech, are initially focusing on patients with colorectal, skin, lung, bladder, pancreatic and kidney cancer.

Although still in its early stages, research into cancer vaccines has already shown that they "can be effective at killing off any remaining tumour cells after surgery and dramatically cut the risk of cancer returning".

NHS England head, Amanda Pritchard, hailed the trials as a "landmark moment" for people with cancer.