Thread by @wolfejosh

1/Some GOOD news about a BAD thing—
The former is from science, the latter from nature.

SCIENCE is about better explanations
The better we can explain something the better we can understand (& control it)
The good news is we have a better explanation for a bad thing from nature.

2/ The BAD thing is cancer.

No amount of hope + prayer will better explain cancer—only science will

The GOOD news is we have a new powerful explanation for a key piece of cancer...

3/The better news is SCIENCE works to invite error correction—to evolve better explanations.

Scientists don’t just declare things in a hyped up stage show—they publish it for the scrutiny of skeptics.

Scientific status comes partly by surviving this scrutiny.

4/I’ll describe the thing with growing COMPLEXITY—but start SIMPLE (like for my kids)

Your body is a Martian war zone hunting for aliens

IF hunters find a bad alien ship, THEN they ring alarm for good soldiers to destroy it
soldiers=immune system
cancer=alien
alien ship =tumor

5/The aliens invented a disguise and a signal jammer to hide from alien-hunters

So if a hunter finds the ship an alien in disguise comes out and lies “hey, don’t worry-we are good guys” and the hunter moves on—while the aliens grow.

Bad aliens. Bad.

6/ Scientists helped hunters figured this out and give them a tech* so if they come across an alien ship they could block the alien signal that blocks the hunters from calling the soldiers.

*The tech have been immunotherapy drugs like checkpoint-inhibitors Keytruda

7/ BUT now scientists have found the aliens are also sending signals to not attack aliens not just from their ship but all through the body—

basically leaving messages telling hunters and soldiers “everything is OK, stand down!”

But it’s a trick!

8/ And that means scientists can give the hunters a new technology to block the signal-jammers and let the soldiers find + kill the bad guys (cancer).

Here is a simple cartoon

9/ And here is a more complex scientifically accurate video

10/ the GOOD news is the recent findings in CELL. Here is the paper

11/ Here are a few key highlights from the paper.

VERY promising if you inhibit the inhibitors then the immune system can kick ass without being constrained or tricked by false inhibitory signals

12/ Here’s to SCIENCE

This isn’t just curiosity, it’s PERSONAL

We just had our 2nd annual “Taylor Tip-Off”

When my brother-in-law Matt Taylor facing death @ 41 knew the end was near from stomach cancer he asked his sister (my wife) to make a memorial bball tournament...

13/ I dont believe in god/heaven—but believe Matt would be ecstatic seeing the competition, old v young celebrating him

& proud of his son—watching knowing how much his dad was loved—and proud of all charity funds going to science to get better explanations to kill the aliens.

14/ My kids and his—

15/ PS @mrichtel has exceptional piece in NYT and even more exceptional book “An Elegant Defense”

nytimes.com/2019/04/04/hea…