This is such exciting news. I studied the state of metastatic melanoma treatment intently for a while, and came to the conclusion that there just wasn't much other there for these people.

Now that may have changed. I don't normally get out of my chair and run to tell my friends what's happened, but this is one of those times.

Alligators' immune system is pretty great as well; they're fairly resistant to HIV due to their immune system that keeps them safe in swamps, they've got lots of anti-bacterials and anti-fungals.

I wonder how many diseases wouldn't exist if we had an immune system 10x stronger.

Wouldn't we just have diseases that are 10x stronger too? :)

Not automatically.

It's a red queen world. So most likely we would.

That is pretty damn cool. Wish it had been an option in 1990 when my dad died.

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Correlation does not imply causation. ("cum hoc ergo propter hoc") I hope this becomes a treatment for folks with cancer, but until it is well studied, we can't jump to conclusions.

The theory behind this is fairly well demostrated in animal models so I would be more confident in this than in some other novel treatments.

On the other hand, "The patient was one of nine with metastatic melanoma, that is skin cancer that has spread, who were being treated in a recently completed clinical trial to test bigger and bigger doses of their own white blood cells." Nine patients and yet we are only hearing about one of them.

If/when this treatment becomes proven -- will those in need be able to get it?

The "extend human life expectancy a few years" hack

All cancer diseses will be successfully cured within the next 30 years because of the development of genetic technology