Whole body donation plays a crucial role in medical research and education. Donated bodies offer hands-on experience for budding doctors, which cannot be recreated through technology. Medical doctors, students, researchers, and scientists can use them to study human anatomy, determine causes of death, and identify disease sites.
Medical research is classified into two types: primary and secondary. Primary research is where the actual studies happen, and secondary research is the summary of available studies in the form of analysis and reviews. In this post, we will explore how whole body donation to science helps in the progression of cancer research and treatment.
Whole Body Donation for Cancer Research
Donating a deceased body to science dramatically contributes to the growth of medical education and medical research, especially when it comes to discovering the causes and treatments of infectious diseases or cancer.
Tissues gathered from donations help researchers learn how cancer grows and spreads, find new ways to prevent and treat cancer, and understand how certain drugs work against cancer in different groups of people. So, if you want to contribute to this cause, you can opt to donate body to science.
Here are some milestones in cancer research that have been achieved with the help of whole-body donations:
- Identifying white blood cells in cancerous tissue makes the first connection between cancer and inflammation.
- Discovery of the most commonly mutated gene in human cancer.
- Isolation of the gene coding for part of the T cell receptor, which is the key to the immune system’s functions.
- Analysis of tissue helped identify that breast cancer tumors have multiple estrogen receptors, which eventually confirmed that the body’s own estrogen was fueling the growth.
- The first human cancer treatment vaccine was approved to treat prostate cancer.
- The first new treatment for bladder cancer was introduced.
- Introduction of the first gene therapy for cancer using chimeric antigen receptor-modified T-cell therapy.
Certain people are at a higher risk of certain types of cancer, based on ethnicity, age, race, and gender. All of these factors influence how cancer affects individuals differently and how certain treatments work. Hence, a variety of different samples are necessary for thorough cancer research. This need is fulfilled by body donation to science. Body donations are considered to be the gateway to precision medicine, helping medical professionals know the right dose of the right drugs to give to the right person.
Access to a variety of samples allows cancer research to thrive in all aspects. Studying tissues allows researchers to learn more about how cancer cells work. This knowledge influences the results of treatment. Hence, whole-body donation provides valuable information for future prevention.
It also helps discover the actual causes of cancer, linking genetic factors and environmental factors like toxins, culture, diet, and lifestyle choices. This leads to better treatment of cancer, understanding why it spreads, who is susceptible, the initial cause of the disease, how to prevent it, and what drugs are effective in treating it.
Summing Up
Whole body donations can give cancer researchers the cadavers and samples they need to continue to make breakthroughs in cancer treatment and prevention. So, if you want to contribute to the progression of cancer research, you can opt for body donation to science and look for the right body donation program near you.
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