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Am I the only one that thinks all these classifications are stupid? Especially when things can change by the time a pre-med is applying for residency?
Genomics and proteomics are about to blow cancer wide open. Just look at the sequencing costs per bp - we'll soon be able to treat cancers based upon their individual genomes. Just need the data and the computational power (and a bit more silicon valley thinking, a bit less medical industry).
And by soon, I mean a decade for the research, another for implementation For the timescale of medical training though, that's relevant.
Someone starting school right now might get out of residency to find their specialty about to be made irrelevant.
Genomics and proteomics are about to blow cancer wide open. Just look at the sequencing costs per bp - we'll soon be able to treat cancers based upon their individual genomes. Just need the data and the computational power (and a bit more silicon valley thinking, a bit less medical industry).
And by soon, I mean a decade for the research, another for implementation For the timescale of medical training though, that's relevant.
Someone starting school right now might get out of residency to find their specialty about to be made irrelevant.
Even if you knew every configuration down to the atom of every gene and protein in every cell/bacteria/cancer you still need to alter it. As anyone who has picked up a pharm textbook knows, all drugs have side effects and most research drugs often fail to make it out of clinical trials for adverse effects in other areas of the body.
Yes, technology is getting much more powerful, yes, we have more funding for research and more researchers, BUT the process/speed of clinical trials is still the same. Its going to take upwards of 15+ years to create a single generation of a drug. Even then that will only be 1st generation (radiation still might be more effective). Not to mention radiation oncology itself is a research powerhouse, in 15 years radiation will also have evolved to be better with less side effects.
Consider this...compare technology/silicon valley of 1990 to 2012 (ridiculous different). Now compare 1990 to 2012 in the world of medicine (nowhere close to what has happened in the world of computers/internet). The point is medicine and medicines research protocols are built such that it can not and will not grow at an exponential speed.
Let me put it in these terms...SDN is ~10 years old, what has medicine accomplish in this time (this is 1/3 the length of our careers).
80 hours a week as an EM attending? Doesn't this violate some type of state regulation? If not, it should. Most data says the avg EM attending sees patients between 40-45 hours a week. The couple EM docs I know work an average of four 10 hour shifts per week 4x, with rotating start times to deal with the circadian issue. Example: Monday 7am-5pm, Wednesday, 10am-8m, Thursday 2pm-midnight, Saturday 6pm-4am, then 2 days off.
Dude, you're grossly underestimating how long it will take for cancer therapeutics to reach that stage. I work for biopharma and I can tell you that getting a new drug approved by the FDA is a long, long process, and there are always side effects. Don't expect a new class of cancer drugs to make radiation therapy obsolete during your medical career.
why the hell is vet medicine not the last one on the list?
why the hell is vet medicine not the last one on the list?
edit: I just noticed flatearth became a martyr!
The current regime can't really work for personalized medicine. Radioimmunotherapy has a lot of potential, and it doesn't fully fall under the realm of radonc. You can also use various targeting molecules to deliver other payloads, toxins, etc. Those types of drugs are already under development.
There are other potential therapies that rely more heavily on bioinformatics, and while we don't have the knowledgebase yet, it will be there soon (ideally with the computational power to analyze it).
There will eventually need to be a change to the FDA approval process for things the exploit pharmacogenomics, and while it's in the future, it's not that far away.
60 years ago we didn't know the structure of DNA. 10 years ago we didn't have the sequence of even a single genome. We now have thousands, as well as the genomes of many cancers.
You're underestimating the rate of progress.
Johnnydrama, you are sounding like the people who say that computers are bound to take over radiology in our lifetimes. Radiation may be dirty, but so is chemotherapy and surgery.
rofl vet's don't just treat pets >.> where do you think that steak and fried eggs for breakfast comes from? ;p And who treats all those farm animals ;o
sure, but those are 2 miracle drugs with very specific indications. You wanna talk about "real" chemo you are talking about cisplatin and 5-FU, which are dirty, dirty drugs. Even newer agents like avastin are having their indications pulled left and right because of all the toxicity.
And, yes, breast cancer surgery is clean, but tell me that an esophagectomy with a gastric pull through isn't a dirty procedure...
Cancer is a dirty disease, and requires dirty treatment.
sure, but those are 2 miracle drugs with very specific indications. You wanna talk about "real" chemo you are talking about cisplatin and 5-FU, which are dirty, dirty drugs. Even newer agents like avastin are having their indications pulled left and right because of all the toxicity.
And, yes, breast cancer surgery is clean, but tell me that an esophagectomy with a gastric pull through isn't a dirty procedure...
Cancer is a dirty disease, and requires dirty treatment.