The biggest health breakthroughs of 2024 – and the setbacks – from ‘miracle’ weight loss jabs to rising cancer cases
THIS year has seen seismic change in the world of health and medicine.
There have been leaps forward in how we might one day treat disease, and steps back in our efforts to prevent it.
The journal Science named its breakthrough of the year as the development of lenacapavir.
The promising new injectable drug provides six months of protection against HIV, which infects more than one million a year.
Since January, there have also been “miracle” weight-loss jabs and anti-cancer vaccines.
But childhood disease outbreaks and a stark rise in the number of under-50s diagnosed with cancer have meant major setbacks.
We look back at some of the stories of the past 12 months . . .
WEIGHT-LOSS JABS
HARDLY a week went by without the likes of Ozempic, Wegovy or “King Kong” Mounjaro in the news.
Popularity of the self-injected drugs exploded due to their extraordinary ability to help shed fat by mimicking a hormone to make you feel full.
Research suggests they have many more uses than treating type 2 diabetes, which is what they were designed for, and millions of Brits could benefit.
Professor John Deanfield, NHS cardiologist and University College London researcher, found semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, substantially cut risk of heart attacks or strokes even in people who did not lose weight.
It adds to studies which suggest the “miracle” drugs might reduce the chances of dementia, kidney disease, cancer and drug or alcohol addiction.
The Government now wants to roll out the medicines to overweight people across the UK.
Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, tells Sun on Sunday Health: “Weight-loss medications have been hailed as one of the health breakthroughs of 2024.
“They offer hope of tangible improvements in the lives of people with severe obesity but are not a long-term solution for everyone.”
CANCER VACCINES
THE NHS became one of the first to roll out cancer vaccines in the real world away from trials — and 10,000 patients are set to have them by 2030.
The vaccines are made with mRNA technology — like that of the Pfizer Covid jabs — and work by matching killer antibodies to individual patients’ tumour cells.
University lecturer and dad-of-four Elliot Pfebve, from Walsall, West Mids, was the first to get a shot in March.
It was aimed at preventing the 55-year-old’s bowel cancer from returning after chemotherapy.
Steve Young, a 52-year-old music teacher from Stevenage, Herts, also had a jab, tailored to his melanoma skin cancer.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS cancer director, says: “This is cutting-edge technology and a very important development.”
DEMENTIA DRUGS
THE UK’s first ever approval of drugs proven to slow and potentially stave off dementia was bittersweet.
Lecanemab and donanemab, which clear toxic proteins from the brain to slow or halt Alzheimer’s disease, come too late for the one million people already living with dementia.
But they offer a ray of hope for preventing it in future, if given at the first signs of cognitive decline.
However, the NHS’s spending watchdog delivered a crushing blow, deciding they cost too much.
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence said the estimated £20,000 per person per year would be an unjustifiable use of tax money.
It could also not overlook evidence that the risks of stroke or brain damage are high.
David Thomas, head of policy at Alzheimer’s Research UK, says: “It’s a step forward that we now have two drugs licensed but it’s hugely disappointing that NHS patients in England and Wales won’t be able to access them.
“While these treatments are far from perfect, they open the door to future breakthroughs that will be safer and more effective, bringing us closer to a day when we can slow, stop and even reverse dementia.”
PIG-TO-MAN TRANSPLANT
IN March, Rick Slayman became the first living patient to ever have a genetically edited pig kidney transplanted into his body.
Aged 62, he was suffering end-stage kidney disease after a transplanted human kidney failed.
Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said the pig organ appeared to work normally after the four-hour operation.
Slayman later died but there was “no indication” it was as a result of the procedure.
Scientists believe tweaking the DNA in the lab before transplant can prevent the human body from rejecting it.
If the technique, known as xenotransplantation, can be perfected, it could slash waiting lists worldwide and potentially remove the need for human donors.
VAPE CRACKDOWN
NEW laws to crack down on vaping will be coming in next year.
E-cigarette use has rocketed, with the Office for National Statistics in October estimating that 5.1million people are regular vapers and six million smoke tobacco.
While widely regarded as safer than smoking, the science increasingly suggests e-cigs are not risk-free.
A study by Manchester Metropolitan University in September found vapers’ cardio fitness was almost as bad as smokers’.
Past research has shown the fumes can cause harmful inflammation in blood vessels and the heart, while patient horror stories have seen youngsters end up in hospital.
Next year, new legislation will ban disposable vapes as well as colourful packaging and sweet flavours that appeal to children.
Now the bad news...
RISING CANCER CASES
DOCTORS highlighted a worrying rise in cancer diagnoses among young adults.
Cancer Research UK found the rate in people aged 24 to 49 has jumped 24 per cent since 1995 – the fastest increase of any age group.
Further research by the charity found that bowel cancer was rising among under-50s in 27 out of 50 countries studied.
Breast and prostate cancers are among the others affected, and research suggests each new generation is more likely than the last to develop the disease.
Experts reckon processed foods, rising obesity and less active lifestyles might all play a part, as well as genetics.
CHILDHOOD DISEASE OUTBREAKS
ENGLAND saw the worst outbreaks of measles and whooping cough in more than a decade.
Ten children died from whooping cough, and 14,453 were confirmed to have been infected between January and October – a massive rise from 856 cases in 2023.
Some 2,707 measles cases were confirmed in the same period. One child died.
Both viral infections can be prevented with vaccines offered free on the NHS to babies and one-year-olds.
Figures show uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab is at a 15-year low of 89 per cent.
The six-in-one vaccine, which covers whooping cough, is also below the safe 95 per cent target, at 92 per cent.