2022: the year pig hearts are transplanted into humans?
Pig hearts could be transplanted into patients within three years, according to a pioneering surgeon in the
UK. Sir Terence English, speaking on the 40th anniversary of the first successful heart transplant, told The
Sunday Telegraph that his protege from that operation will try to replace a human kidney with a pig’s later
this year. The 87-year-old said: “If the result of xenotransplantation is satisfactory with porcine kidneys to
humans then it is likely that hearts would be used with good effects in humans within a few years. If it works
with a kidney, it will work with a heart.” He added: “That will transform the issue.” PA
Pub to give 100 free meals a day to hungry children
The landlord of a pub will be feeding 100 hungry children every day for the rest of summer to help poor
families struggling through the six-week holiday. The hot dinners will be dished out at the Crown Inn in
Keynsham, Somerset. The initiative is aimed at helping families who receive free school meals during term
time, but all parents will be able to arrive with youngsters and get the free feed – no questions asked.
Landlord David Yeomans had the idea while donating at a foodbank last month. “We went to give them a
load of food,” he said. “And then we thought, ‘Well, we cook a load of food every day anyway, and we
would be able to do meals really cheaply, because we are already set up for that’.” Millions of parents across
the country are regularly going without food so they can feed their children during summer holidays,
parliament’s work and pensions select committee said in July.
Statins may reduce the risk of liver cancer
A study has found that Statins have been associated with “significantly reducing” the risk of hepatitis
sufferers getting liver cancer or dying of it. Researchers from Harvard and the Karolinska Institutet in
Stockholm, Sweden, studied thousands of Swedish adults with viral hepatitis B or C to assess the
relationship between statins and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – a common type of liver cancer. The
study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, found that use of drugs called lipophilic statins was
associated with substantially lower risks for catching and dying of HCC compared with the group which did
not use statins. Lead author Jonas Ludvigsson said statins “might protect against liver cancer and perhaps
have anti-tumour effects”. But he added: “Someone else should look at other chronic liver diseases and
statins before we say this protective effect is also present.” Researchers said the greatest reduction in HCC
risk occurred after at least 600 daily doses – the equivalent of taking a moderate dose of statins for about
two years. PA