CHEMO-PREVENTION

                    A young Linda in happier times

                                  Where?  When?  Beats me.

Several times lately I have poured cold water on the notion of cancer prevention.  The point I was trying to make is that, ultimately, cancerous cells arise because of mistakes made in vital genetic processes, and that we have no control over them.  Well, a brief article I just read in The Week (“all you need to know about everything that matters” – my kind of rag) leads me to a new understanding.  We might not be able to prevent dangerous mutations, but maybe we can teach the immune system to recognize them early-on – and rub them out!  This promises to be a tricky, and sensitive, endeavor.  After all, we don’t want our killer T cells to mistake our, say, liver cells, for bad guys, do we?

But – given enough effort – this could come about.  Not soon, and not without massive funding, but maybe someday.  Fondly to be awaited, that's for sure.

Trouble is, I can’t seem to find a way to lead you to the article that set this off.  It is in the latest issue of The Week, and will take you about two minutes to read.  In lieu of that, here is a more general article about “chemo-prevention”.  Not great, but the best I can do.

https://www.oncolink.org/risk-and-prevention/prevention-screening/what-is-chemoprevention