Reference no: EM132360480

A practical report

PRACTICAL - MEDICAL AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING

In order to be considered "ethical", medical practices must take into account four principles: autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-maleficence. Autonomy requires that a patient has autonomy of thought, intention, and action when making decisions about their health care procedures and that they must be free of coercion. Justice is the concept that the burdens and benefits of treatments must be equally distributed. Beneficence means that treatment is provided with the intent of doing good for the patient. Non-maleficence requires that a procedure does not harm the patient involved or others in society.

As a result of progress in medical science, many novel technologies for treatment of diseases and human conditions have been developed. This has generated ethical dilemmas where the adverse effects of treatment have to be taken into account as well as the benefits.

A number of cases involving ethical issues have received much publicity. You may have seen the film based on the case of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks had ovarian cancer from which she eventually died. The specialists treating her took a biopsy of her cancer cells and established the first cultured human cell line called HeLa. Since then, cultured cell lines have been an integral part of medical research. Scientists have subsequently been able to culture cells from most tissues of the body. Henrietta Lacks was not consulted about the use of her cells, raising the issue of the ethics behind the use of human tissue.

Many medical advances raise ethical issues. Some of these include the adverse effects of assistive reproductive technologies, high cost procedures like organs transplants that may consume health dollars, the rights of patients to die, conflicts between the wishes of patients and their relatives.

PRACTICALS 2 & 3 PERNICIOUS ANAEMIA

This practical takes place over two sessions. Hand in the report after the second session.

Aims

To determine whether samples of patient sera contain antibodies to the gastric proton pump by Western blotting and immuno-histochemistry, and suggest which patients have pernicious anaemia.

PERNICIOUS ANAEMIA PART 2
Western Blotting (continued) and calculation refresher
Immuno-peroxidase staining of mouse stomach sections
Pernicious anaemia practical reportQuestions

a. What is the expected size of the protein being detected by the sera from pernicious anaemia patients?

b. Which subunit of the proton pump does this correspond to?

c. Describe another method that could be used to detect and quantitate the levels of anti- proton pump antibodies in patient sera?

d. The secondary antibody that was used in the Western and immuno-histochemistry was a sheep anti-human Ig-HRP conjugate. What is the antigen that this antibody is specific for? What animal was this antibody raised in? What is the enzyme that is conjugated to the antibody?

PRACTICAL 4 MOLECULAR SUBTYPES OF BREAST CANCER

Overall aims of the practical

Part 1 Introduction to the anatomy and histology of the breast

Objective: To become familiar with the anatomy and histology of the breast.
Task: Examine normal and diseased breast tissue. Correctly identify and label structures of the breast and different cell types present. Each group is provided with photos showing normal and abnormal breast histology. Add the photo to your worksheet and fully label the structures.

Part 2 Molecular subtypes of breast cancer

Objective: To become familiar with the most common molecular subtypes of breast cancer
Task: Examine pre-prepared slides of the breast cancer cells from 3 different patients. Correctly diagnose/classify the receptor status (Estrogen receptor(ER)/ Progesterone receptor (PR) and Human epidermal growth factor 2 receptor (HER2)) of the 3 patients using immunocytochemistry (ICC).

Part 3 Treatment options for molecular subtypes of breast cancer

Objective: To understand why molecular subtype determines the treatment options for a patient
Task: Perform a cell proliferation assay on cells treated with different classes of anticancer drugs in culture. Share results with the class to collect a full set of data.
Discuss the results of the cell proliferation assay as a group.
Calculate how effective each drug is at reducing cell proliferation compared to the untreated cells.
Suggest an appropriate drug treatment for each of the patients based on the molecular subtype of their cancers.
Discuss what other factors need to be considered with drug treatment regimes.