As I was making my transition from high school to college, I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to find a cure for cancer. At the time, I was a chemistry major with plans to go to medical school and then into medical research. Already at that age, I had seen the devastating effects cancer has on people and their families. My grandmother had died of stomach cancer and my dad's brother had throat cancer. Years later both my father and mother died of cancer. He of lung, and she of colon.
I did not follow through with my original plan. Still, I watch closely the progress of researchers around the world hoping, one day, cancer will be curable. I long for the time when we can stop torturing people with chemo, families with death and alleviate the fear of getting cancer. Had I stayed on my original course, I wonder if I would have been apart of the new developments coming out of modern cancer research. Would I have had some part in the story below?
Three days ago, The New Times posted an exciting article, on William Ludwig's cancer treatment. He was part of a new experiment, whereby, billions of his T-cells were withdrawn, reprogrammed and returned to his blood stream. Gene therapy, which began in the early '70s, is the replacing of genes or the introduction of new genes into a person's blood stream with the dual purpose of targeting/destroying cancer cells and remaining in the body as part of its new DNA—should the cancer cells come back. Before it was just a theory, but now we have evidence it could become a medical reality. Should this new method be discernible and repeatable, many lives will be spared what so many have already faced. While I am sad to have not been apart of such a discovery-come-to-fruition, I applaud all of those who were—and all those who are still working diligently every day to end this plague of cancer.
Let us keep our fingers crossed!
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