The way we treat cancer now is barbaric and simple, but sadly, it's the best we currently have.

Last year I read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which greatly expanded my concept of what exactly cancer is. I'm sure that there are much more in-depth books on the subject, but as a layperson, I really enjoyed reading it to learn more about the topic in general.

I have a very, very limited understanding of immunology, but from what I gathered from the conversation was that the field shows a lot of promise. The woman who mentioned using the immune system to fight cancer works for a company that is also trying to figure out how to get the immune system to recognize HIV as an intruder. I must admit that the way these two were talking really confused me, as I don't speak immunologistese. At one point, one of them simply said, "humanodon, this is really important!" when she caught my eyes glazing over.

Anyway, what I do find fascinating is that people are finding ways to extend and expand on the utility of the human body. It seems like an obvious idea to use what is already there to accomplish something new or different and yet it seems like until recently, the technology or understanding has not existed to make these things happen.