A Universal Cancer Treatment?
It really is remarkable how far cancer treatment has progressed, even in the last few years. I'm one of the unfortunate people who, through a close family encounter with cancer, knows more about this stuff than anyone should have to. The oncologist told my relative that if they had presented with this particular cancer just a decade ago, his recommendation would have been to start hospice care.<p>However, in recent years, a very effective checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy has been developed for the cancer in question. ~2x the success rates of traditional chemo, greatly increased overall survival statistics, and with massively reduced side effects. The results speak for themselves: this drug has granted my relative years of extra life in the worst case, and a path to a deep, long remission in the best case.<p>I think that as the technology develops, by 2040 we'll be looking back at the present state of the art with the same incredulity that we currently have for, like, bloodletting with leeches in the Middle Ages. I think they've been saying this for a long time now, but it's truer than ever that a real cure for cancer is right around the corner.