Hello readers! Welcome to the Cambridge Widening Access to Medicine Society fortnightly newsletter 😊
Good luck to everyone with interviews coming up over the next few weeks!
Food for Thought: an example interview question
Why do you think life expectancy in the North of England is 5 years lower than in the South?
Behind the Headlines
Immunotherapy offers hope for men with prostate cancer
Medicine is always evolving as new treatment comes out. The trial on the drug- pembrolizumab- has shown that it is effective in some men with advanced prostate cancer, even after they had stopped responding to the main treatments. 1/20 men saw their tumours shrink and disappear altogether and a small number gained years of extra life. The participants with the most dramatic responses were seen in patients whose tumours had mutations in genes involving repairing DNA. Researchers are now investigating whether this group might benefit the most from immunotherapy in a larger trial.
Here is another article on pembrolizumab and its effect on head and neck cancers:
Link of the fortnight
Last minute interview tips:
Ali Abdaal, a former medical student at Cambridge has a whole playlist of videos to assist in your preparations for your upcoming interviews. Here are a few videos with general tips and topics:
Myth-buster
“Everyone will be smarter than me”.
NOT TRUE! It is very common to question whether you are really good enough, but you are all wonderful, intelligent & unique individuals with so much to offer whichever medical school is lucky enough to have you. Adjusting to feeling like a small fish in a big pond can be really challenging. However, it is often a blessing in disguise as you will be surrounded by other passionate, like-minded people which makes medical school a great environment to learn and grow!
Food for Thought: an example approach
The disparity in life expectancy between the North & South of England is an example of an inequality in health.
People living in the south of England live longer on average and with fewer years in poor health than those in the north.
Healthy life expectancy, or the number of years an individual can expect to live in good health, is significantly distinct in the north and the south. In one Salford neighbourhood, healthy life expectancy is only 46, much lower than the UK average of 63.
Why does this disparity exist?
There is a “social gradient in health” (Marmot, 2010): health is (partially) determined by social and economic factors.
Socioeconomic differences between the North & the South can explain this difference in health in part.
Factors such as higher unemployment, poor working conditions, lower salaries, lack of job security, shift work and higher economic stress negatively impact on people’s health.
Differing levels of air pollution have also been linked to poorer health in the north.
This is evidenced by the fact that men living in affluent areas, the least deprived 10 percent, live significantly longer (almost a decade, 9.3 yrs) than males in the most deprived 10 per cent of areas. Similarly for females there is a difference of 7.5 years.
Much of this inequality is caused by higher mortality from heart and respiratory disease, and lung cancer, in more deprived areas.
Other social factors such as higher rates of smoking and occupational exposure to lung pollutants help make sense of this difference in lung cancer incidence.
Useful Links and Reports
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/whats-happening-life-expectancy-uk
Marmot Review (2010) – draws attention to the ‘social gradient in health’
The Black Report: a 1980s report on inequalities in health commissioned by the Department of Health, particularly highlighting the influence of economic status on health.
Thanks for reading – if you have any questions then as ever please just email us at access@clinsoc.co.uk!
Hope you have a great fortnight and GOOD LUCK!
Love,
CamWAMS Committee
Commentaires