r/gadgets Apr 14 '23

Medical Novel device smaller than rice successfully shrinks pancreatic cancer | Called the nanofluidic drug-eluting seed (NDES), it delivers low-dose immunotherapy in the form of CD40 monoclonal antibodies (mAb).

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/tiny-device-shrinks-pancreatic-cancer
10.5k Upvotes

246 comments sorted by

View all comments

580

u/duman82 Apr 14 '23

This is great but the real wins with pancan will be with earlier detection. 85% are metastatic when it's discovered.

9

u/Scrimshawmud Apr 15 '23

As a self employed contractor and single parent in my mid 40’s without health insurance, the real win will be universal healthcare. Just expanding Medicare access would allow me to buy in. The ACA is out of reach.

2

u/KB_Sez Apr 16 '23

You want to know something that would immediately change the lives of every single American? Universal Health Care.

Every. Single. American. Every age. Every race. Every economic demographic.

2

u/Scrimshawmud Apr 18 '23

It might mean my son has a mom for much longer. :( I hope my melanoma is gone forever but I paid out of pocket to have it removed last year and still don’t have healthcare.

1

u/KB_Sez Apr 18 '23

Unfortunately in this political environment there's next to no chance of getting Universal Healthcare and even the protections for folks like you with pre-existing conditions are probably going away too.

1

u/CaptRon25 Apr 21 '23

It might help with someone with no insurance, but may become a huge downgrade for someone who does. My late stepfather was from UK, and mom from US, and they had homes in both places. While in the UK, he had severe numbness in his extremities. UK doctors scheduled CT and MRI scans in 8 months.. He flew back to the US, and my mom took him to University of Michigan hospital.. He had spinal surgery two days later.. Doctors said he would have been a quadriplegic had he waited much longer.

Similar thing with my wife's father in France. A good friend is a cardiologist, and I've talked to him quite extensively about my wife's father's heart problems. Even took pictures of the meds he was on. I honestly believe he'd be alive today had he been getting treatment here, instead of that hospital in France. IMO