Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, HPV Vaccine, BRCA genes
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
News that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has pulled out of research into Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease is casting doubt over the future of long promised breakthroughs in this area. Mark Porter hears from two leading experts who explain that due to the complexity of the disease the pharmaceutical industry's single agent 'magic bullet' approach needs to change. And while over the last 15 years nearly every trial into new treatments for Alzheimer's has ended in failure, lifestyle and medical prevention are starting to make a difference.
Plus clarity on headlines that women who've had the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer will need far fewer smear tests in future. But how will the national screening programme know for sure who has been vaccinated - and who hasn't? And Margaret McCartney's thoughts on other news that women treated for breast cancer who carry the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations that dramatically increase the risk of developing the disease, are just as likely to survive their illness as women who don't.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Greg Jenna and good news, Your Dead to Me is back for a new series. Here we go. Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dor-Leon with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat and being very quickly knocked down. And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak and Ria Elena. I'm excited. You're dead to me, the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Listen first on BBC Sounds. This is the BBC. Hello, thank you for listening to this edition of Inside Health. |
| 0:39.4 | I hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:40.7 | Coming up today, smears. |
| 0:42.7 | We examine claims that women who've been given the cervical cancer vaccine |
| 0:46.3 | will need far fewer smear tests in future. |
| 0:49.4 | But how will the national screening program know for sure, |
| 0:52.3 | who's been vaccinated, and who hasn't. |
| 0:55.0 | And new research suggesting that women treated for breast cancer who carry the so-called |
| 0:59.0 | Angelina Jolie genes, the Braca mutations, are just as likely to survive as other women |
| 1:05.0 | with the disease. But first news that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has pulled out of research into neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, |
| 1:14.8 | casting doubt over the future of long-promised breakthroughs in this area. |
| 1:19.4 | In reality, progress has been worryingly slow over the last 15 years. |
| 1:23.9 | Nearly every trial into new treatments for Alzheimer's has ended in failure. |
| 1:28.4 | And Pfizer's unlikely to be the only company to say enough is enough. |
| 1:32.9 | Roger Barker is Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge |
| 1:36.6 | and currently in New York, organising the next World Parkinson's Congress. |
| 1:41.4 | What was his reaction to Pfizer's announcement? |
| 1:44.1 | I was really rather disappointed, to be honest. |
| 1:46.0 | The idea of trying to treat chronic degenerative brain diseases, |
| 1:50.0 | they are such a challenge, and there have been a lot of failures in this field, |
| 1:55.0 | despite large amounts of money being invested. |
| 1:57.0 | So there is a sort of groundswell of feeling that these diseases are really too hard to |
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