Yeah - My daughter has metastatic recurrent osteosarcoma, a bone cancer that metastasizes to the lungs. I guess in blood cancers the CAR-T treatment where they reprogram your T-cells has been a real revolution. Some of the "kemias" are seeing a 95% response rate with over 60% getting to full remission.

Explanation for /r/mma: Cancer cells in most forms take advantage of certain protein building blocks in the body to form in a way that is different from regular cells. Those proteins are required for cancer cells to grow, but often are superfluous for regular cells and not found in them. So doctors have found a way (through MRNA and DNA splicing) to tell your body's own T-cells that these certain proteins are bad, like REALLY bad, and the T-cells should devote all their energy to destroying these proteins instead of looking around for strep bacteria or whatever they were doing before to fight disease. To get this treatment, they extract a patient's own T-cells, send them to NIH in Washington DC, reprogram them there, ship them back to the patient, and inject them back into the body. It's about as hard in terms of a procedure for the patient as donating platelets and then getting 2 flu shots. And it has seen absolutely remarkable results.

Analogy for /r/mma: Imagine you're at a small fight promotion and Francis Ngannou comes in. Turns out he's in an unsanctioned fight against some local tomato can. You're just sitting in the audience having a good time, eating snacks, getting fat. This is great! In the 3rd round, Ngannou is done toying with the guy and knocks his head off. Just as he does, referee Mark Goddard shows up in a white lab coat. He hands Francis a note. He reads it. He looks up and turns to you. He climbs out of the cage and as he's walking your direction he tells you he's going to rip your arms off and feed them to you. He is seriously pissed.

You're the cancer-causing protein. The tomato can is a cold virus. Mark Goddard is the scientist and Francis Ngannou is the T-cell of your nightmares. The note Mark Goddard handed Ngannou said "This is a note from the future - That guy right there in the audience becomes a despotic ruler and kills everyone in your home country of Cameroon, you're the only one who can stop him."