MAJOR HEALTH PROBLEMS Cancer Description Cancer is new growth of tissue resulting from a continuous proliferation of abnormal cells that have the ability to invade and destroy other tissues. Cancer is a multi-stage process where a series of irreversible genetic errors occur in a cell in the body during a patient's lifetime. The early stages (initiation) are critical for setting the process off. Later changes lead to spread and increased growth rate, and are triggered …showed first 75 words of 1591 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1591 total…a temporary measure; at least one such pump continued to work for several years. In 1969 the first completely artificial heart was implanted in a human, again on a temporary basis. The first permanent artificial heart, designed by Robert Jarvik, was implanted in 1982 in a patient who lived for three months thereafter. A number of patients have received Jarvik and other artificial hearts since that time, but surviving recipients tended to suffer strokes and related problems.