Natasha Loder

The Economist — Treating cancer: Progress on many fronts In rich countries half of cancers are now survivable. And better understanding means that more cures are coming, says Natasha Loder. THERE are few whose lives have not been touched by cancer. It cuts down friends, loved ones, siblings, spouses, parents and children.

The Economist — NO WONDER they are called "patients". When people enter the health-care systems of rich countries today, they know what they will get: prodding doctors, endless tests, baffling jargon, rising costs and, above all, long waits. Some stoicism will always be needed, because health care is complex and diligence matters.

The Economist — LUANN STOTTLEMYER has had diabetes for 23 years, but it was only in 2016 that her doctor prescribed a treatment that changed her life. It has allowed her to bring her blood-sugar levels under control and lose weight. Yet this miracle of modern science is not a new pill.

The Economist — WHEN Constantin Coussios, a biomedical engineer at Oxford University, arrived one day in 2013 at the transplant centre of King's College Hospital, in London, with a liver for their use, he triggered a brief flurry of panic. Two other livers had arrived at the same time.

The Economist — WHEN someone goes into cardiac arrest, survival depends on how quickly the heart can be restarted. Enter Amazon's Echo, a voice-driven computer that answers to the name of Alexa, which can recite life-saving instructions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a skill taught to it by the American Heart Association.

The Economist — IN THE summer of 1996 Karen Mycock, a cell biologist, was attending a wedding in the Scottish highlands. Returning to her hotel to change her hat, she found a fax pushed under her door. It said: "She's been born and she has a white face and furry legs."

The Economist — EVERY year about 120,000 organs, mostly kidneys, are transplanted from one human being to another. Sometimes the donor is a living volunteer. Usually, though, he or she is the victim of an accident, stroke, heart attack or similar sudden event that has terminated the life of an otherwise healthy individual.

The Economist — IN A former leatherworks just off Euston Road in London, a hopeful firm is starting up. BenevolentAI's main room is large and open-plan. In it, scientists and coders sit busily on benches, plying their various trades. The firm's star, though, has a private, temperature-controlled office.

The Economist — ONE of the most important medical insights of recent decades is that cancers are triggered by genetic mutations. Cashing that insight in clinically, to improve treatments, has, however, been hard. A recent study of 2,600 patients at the M.D.

The Economist — LAST year, Pfizer almost became the world's largest drug firm when it tried to merge with Allergan, an Irish company that makes Botox, among many other products. The deal would have been worth $160 billion, but was indirectly blocked by the American government (via a change in tax rules) because it appeared to be aimed at avoiding taxation.

The Economist — FOREWARNED, the proverb has it, is forearmed. But what happens when there is no warning? That was the case in December 2013, when an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever began in Guinea. It spread rapidly to Liberia and Sierra Leone and raged on for over a year. Around 29,000 people were infected.

The Economist — JULIANA KEEPING is rushing to work in Oklahoma with two children in tow. Her three-year-old son, Eli, has cystic fibrosis, a deadly lung disorder. He is too young for a drug called Orkambi from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotech firm, but one day it may keep him alive.

The Economist — MICHAEL RAE eats 1,900 calories a day, 600 fewer than recommended. Breakfast is a large salad, yogurt and a "precisely engineered" muffin. In a mere 100 calories this miracle of modern gastronomy delivers 10% of Mr Rae's essential nutrients. Lunch is a legume-based stew and another muffin. Dinner varies.

The Economist — "Our job", says Jan Kemper, "is to make cells happy." Ms Kemper works at MedImmune, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her laboratory contains 40 bioreactors-fluid-filled tanks of about three litres' capacity. Paddles within them whirl around a mixture of nutrient broth and specially engineered hamster cells that are busy making human antibodies. It is, indeed, cell heaven in one of these reactors. It is also part of a new front in the ancient war between man and microbe, for the antibodies Ms Kemper's cells produce are designed to attack bacteria, and thus back up conventional antibiotics, some of which are failing in the face of rising bacterial resistance.

The Economist — ON MARCH 25th the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported a rash of cases of Ebola in Guinea, the first such ever seen in west Africa. As of then there had been 86 suspected cases, and there were reports of suspected cases in the neighbouring countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia as well. The death toll was 60. On October 15th the WHO released its latest update. The outbreak has now seen 8,997 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola. All but 24 of those have been in Guinea (16% of the total), Sierra Leone (36%) and Liberia (47%).

The Economist — IN THE late 1800s a New York doctor noticed that getting an infection after surgery helped some cancer patients. So he began to treat cancer using infections and had a little success. But many doctors were sceptical of his work, and other treatments such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy eventually took off. Today, however, the pharmaceutical industry understands how his treatments would have worked and has placed a sizeable bet that immuno-oncology-the treatment of cancer using the body's immune system-will yield breakthrough drugs. Earlier this month one of a promising new class of immuno-oncology drugs was approved for use in America by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Economist — THE lucky ones are admitted to a health centre. They arrive bleeding, in taxis, on foot, in wheelbarrows and sometimes in ambulances. Mostly there is little help available and patients are dying alone, lying on the ground and lucky to receive even palliative care. Médecins Sans Frontières, a medical charity that has treated more than two-thirds of the known patients, says its centres are overwhelmed. The death toll from the Ebola virus is continuing to grow alarmingly. On September 9th the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had recorded 4,293 cases in five west African countries, of which at least 2,296 people had died (see map below).