A New Way to Spell Relief: V-e-n-o-m: A toxin from killer sea snails promises a better painkiller

摘要

The only thing worse than a pain-filled life is a painful death. Both are altogether too common. The world Health Organization estimates that on any given day over three million people struggle with chronic pain from cancer alone. "In the U.S., a study published last November in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that of thousands of terminal patients interviewed at five major hospitals, about half spent their final days in agony. The study's authors laid much of the blame at the feet of a medical culture that chases miracles to the bitter end rather than doing its best to assuage suffering.