Luck control

        People fail to realize how lucky they are except when some tragedies hit someone else. Every day, by watching TVs, surfing internets all of which report so many accidents, we got the idea that the world is full of risks. China is occupied by hazardous air; United States is discussing gun control; North Korean is testing nuke weapons; Solomon islands are experiencing earthquakes. Thus, fortune is not the arrival of good luck in the future, but the escape of bad luck in the past. Chinese cherish this kind of fortune by coining a word “houpa” that means the fear after the event. Western culture has also a similar expression: no news is good news.

        It makes more sense that we did not realize how lucky we are when it is about cancer. Everyone will develop cancer very early if their bodies fail to repair a great deal of DNA mutations caused by environments. Majority of people have no idea how many mechanisms in our body work together to protect us from cancer. For example, when DNA in a cell was hurt by UV, radiation or other stress, a protein called p53 will be activated to induce a cascade of events that lead to the death of the cell. So many similar proteins exist that DNA mutations will be eliminated under different circumstances. Every day, our bodies have fixed a great volume of mistakes in DNA without our realization.

        Among all hiding safeguard mechanisms preventing us from cancer, immune system is fundamental and vital. Immune reactions are tamed to help to reject cancer. Research of how to tame immune system for cancer treatment is called cancer immunotherapy. Historically, cancer is controlled by surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and latest targeted therapy. All these methods kill cancer cells using foreign materials without considering if these materials will also do harm to our body. Different from these methods, cancer immunotherapy focuses on provoking our immune system to work better to kill cancer cells. As a result, the side effects of cancer immunotherapy are less and the efficacy of it is better.

        Everyone has immune system so we are all lucky. But under some circumstances like cancer, luck is not enough. We need to control luck. Luckily, we are on the way.