@zenvelo interesting.
My mom worked in cancer research for years. She is not a medical professional or a researcher, but she worked in procurement directly with the researchers. She said most years they really had too much money. This was a long time ago. Basically the way I understand it innovations are made some years that create a lot of meaningful research, and then there are a lot of years when almost nothing is happening. But, each year, everything has to be spent because most of the work is done by non-profits or government. This is not only true for cancer. But, some diseases are severly underfunded.
Barbra Streisand has started a foundation and has a research wing at a hospital researching female heart disease specifically. Women tend to get blockages in different arteries than men, smaller arteries, but both sexes can get the blockages in any arteries surrounding the heart and other parts of the body. These difference probably explain why women have different heart attack symptoms. It’s very interesting work. I saw an interview with the doctor in charge and she talked about developing a new MRI scan to predict heart risk. She said they focused on MRI so we stop delivering so much radiation to the body via CT, especially the breast area of women. I am sure it will benefit men too.
Maybe the trick is we need more female researchers?
@Aster My dad had bypass surgery when he was 46. He has taken cholesterol lowering drugs since age 48 I think. He is now 68. He gets blood tests regularly, he had to have surgery for the artery on the side of his neck because that got all blocked up also. He has had a couple angiograms, I am sure there are other things. One girlfriend of mine, her mom lived with congestive heart problems for about 15 years. Meds, hospital stays, and it affected her with secondary problems to the main problem. Having said all that, heart disease often is fairly silent, and a surgery and difficult recovery, can easily mean the person lives without having to feel they are sick for a good 10+ years. Maybe they should worry more, but it feels like a cure. That happens with cancer too sometimes. Surgery and it is gone.