Only about 10% of cancer patients respond to immunotherapy at the moment. While it's great when it works, we have a very long way to go in improving outcomes.
Wow, what a diverse body of work. Could you give an example of a paper that you feel fits your description of having "almost never even been properly formulated before"?
Making a video game about symbiosis, metamorphosis, and mutation, all wrapped up in a tower-defense/strategy-like package, called Chrysalis. https://metamorph.games
A miraculous breakthrough could be on two fronts: artificial "meat organs" for those whose life is at immediate risk and need a transplant, and regenerative biotech/medicine to repair those with damage without requiring surgery.
Either way, implanted devices can be a good bridge from our current situation.
In our local district, rather than have individual buses for elementary, middle school, etc., they are having one driver pick up the elementary kids, drop them off, the go back out and pick up the older kids. They had to change the start times for elementary and high school to make this work, and they're also paying the drivers more, but it seems to be working. One issue is that if a single driver goes down (illness, etc.) it's a huge hit to logistics, and subs are hard to come by. But mostly they've made it work.
If you have a plan and motivation, go for it. Assuming you need to make money, you can either be self employed, in a partnership, or employed by someone else. The first requires you be a good business person, which is not a common innate trait but can be learned to some extent. The second is often a great option if you have equally motivated partners with complementary strengths. The third usually requires some sort of signalling to get employers to hire you. Having a degree is part of that signalling. This is, of course, completely ignoring that some professions require a degree, like being a doctor, which is rewarding work. As a teenager, you often have no idea what you will find meaningful and rewarding later in life, making this type of decision quite risky.
This isn't a randomized controlled trial, so I wouldn't put much stock in the results, although it should provide a catalyst for further study (if it hasn't already).