What are the five most important medical breakthroughs of 2024?

From research into new weight-loss drugs to the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, 2024 is marked by important scientific breakthroughs, particularly in the field of healthcare.
From research into new weight-loss drugs to the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, 2024 is marked by important scientific breakthroughs, particularly in the field of healthcare.
"Euronews Health covered research that gave hope that new treatments or research could improve people's health through better diagnostics, medicines and knowledge.
Here are some of the achievements in healthcare over the past year and the topics that received the most attention from researchers.
New diabetes drugs linked to benefits other than weight loss
Over the past few years, a group of diabetes treatment drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists have made a splash, and this year is no exception, with several new studies analyzing the impact of these blockbuster drugs.
In addition to helping patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity, these drugs are now being associated with a host of additional benefits.
Research published this year found that semaglutide - marketed as Ozempic or Wegovy - reduced cardiovascular disease, such as stroke and heart attack, in older adults with comorbidities.
These drugs are also associated with a reduction in kidney failure, and another drug in the same class - tirzepatide - appears to reduce the severity of sleep apnea.
Dr Elizabeth Lauder, head of research at the British Medical Journal (BMJ), said it would be interesting to see whether the weight-loss benefits of these drugs "over a lifetime translate into a reduction in all these other diseases".
But she added that "we don't know what the long-term consequences might be" and whether people would have to continue taking these drugs or risk regaining the weight.
Injecting HIV twice a year is better than taking daily tablets
This year, new research was published on a twice-weekly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) injection that is more effective than a daily oral pill (pre-exposure prophylaxis) for protecting against the virus.
HIV, which has killed an estimated 42 million people worldwide, can now be prevented and managed as a chronic disease. However, according to UNAIDS, of the nearly 39.9 million people worldwide living with the virus, more than 9 million do not have access to treatment.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July found that no women who received the injection twice a year contracted HIV in a randomized trial.
The results, published in November, showed that the injection was 96% effective in preventing HIV infections in men.
HIV experts described the study as "stunning" and "unprecedented".
New blood tests for Alzheimer's disease
A Swedish study published this year found that a blood test is 90 percent accurate in determining whether a person has Alzheimer's disease.
This could make the process of diagnosing the disease less cumbersome, as patients currently need a spinal fluid sample or a PET scan to find out if they have the disease.
Neurodegenerative disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting around 7.8 million people in the EU.
New treatments for some Alzheimer's patients have also been approved this year.
European regulators, for example, gave the green light to the Alzheimer's drug Lecanemab after initially rejecting it. In a study, the drug was shown to slow the cognitive decline associated with the disease.
AI and cancer therapies
BMJ's Loder told Euronews Health that the scientific journal sees a lot of submissions for research into the use of AI and how doctors compare to the technology for diagnosis.
She also said there is a lot of interest in "new cancer therapies", such as immune checkpoint inhibitors - a type of immunotherapy - and more personalised cancer therapies.
"We're seeing personalized therapies come in and change outcomes, not necessarily cure people, but extend life in a meaningful way. So I would say this should be an area of emerging interest," the expert stressed.
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) launched a study into personalised cancer vaccines this year.
Dr Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, said that alongside weight loss drug research, "the impact of AI in medicine" was another area with several journal articles and news stories.
Rubin also highlighted studies published this year related to specific breast cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma treatments that have "changed the practice" of physician readers.
The ongoing implications of COVID and the impact of climate change
The ongoing effects of COVID, which a recent study suggests may persist for years in young people, and research on the links of ultra-processed foods to a range of adverse health outcomes are also important topics.
Climate change and its impact on health is also a key area of interest for researchers, with a growing number of studies linking air pollution to health problems or looking at the health industry's impact on climate, Loder said.
A large Danish study published in the BMJ this year, for example, found that air pollution was linked to infertility in men and noise pollution to infertility in women.
Rubin added that readers of the New England Journal of Medicine are "particularly interested in the emergence of avian flu (H5N1) and other infectious disease outbreaks around the world." | BGNES