![ResearchSummary.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/valued-customer/23wCbDnqxN1iWSEhGjgJJGwnPdx5J6YPKGyxPbogHLTVMeyamveKqEZp4ciwktPNJ2Af1.png)
<a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2201445"><i>IMG source - NEJM.org</i></a>

While it is only a specific form of cancer, Mismatch Repair–Deficient Rectal Cancer, the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2201445">New England Journal of Medicine</a> reports that use of a monoclonal antibody has completely cured every test subject afflicted with it.  While the many other forms of cancer are not so easily cured, this is exemplary of the approach that may well eventually enable all of them to be so completely cured.  

The genetic defects that cause our cells to reproduce without functional purpose, creating runaway tumors that eventually consume us, are myriad and varied.  For this one, a mechanism was found that re-enabled the bodies natural immune response of cell death for malfunctioning cells to terminate the cancerous cells.  For all cancers, some similar mechanism remains to be found, some snippet of DNA or, as in this one, an antibody designed to enable apoptotic termination of malfunctioning cells, that will similarly cure each of them.

<a href="https://vigilantfox.news/p/100-cancer-remission-achieved-in">Vigilant Fox News</a> shared this welcome bit of good news at an opportune time, as unceasing doom and gloom come at us from all sides, and I wanted everyone to take inspiration from this example of the good that will come from surviving our exigence.  It is not obvious to most of us that life is extraordinarily wonderful today, because our attention necessarily focuses on hazards we must reckon, on harms we need to be aware of and negotiate, and, of course, all of us are doomed to die alone, in fear, and painfully, so we tend to keep our minds on avoiding these things and often take for granted the wonders of the present age that make life wonderful, indeed.

Most of us have never spent a night naked and exposed to the elements, bereft of technological miracles, hungry, cold, and terrified of the slavering monsters in the darkness.  We do not have that baseline our ancestors knew all too well to compare to our comfortable pillowtop mattresses, central heating, and miraculous light switches that banish darkness at a whim.  Having lived innawoods I have a bit of that perspective, and I can heartily recommend gaining a view of life from there, because it makes the blessings of civilization incredibly wonderful.

We mostly don't know just how awesome our lives are, because we have little experience of miserable suffering dependence on only what our own hands can wring out of wilderness, naked and alone, produces.  While it's a good thing we are not reduced to such state, it is not necessarily good we are not well acquainted with our incompetence to build a heater, weave cloth, or construct a safe, warm home without the modern technology we enjoy.  Knowing how desperate we would be without civilization creates urgent dedication to protecting it from the many perils it faces today, and civilization is far more fragile than we may suspect.

This bit of good news is, I think, a herald of more and better yet to come, if only we can emerge from the dire machinations of psychopaths, who are collapsing our financial system, wrecking our supply lines, and plunging us into global war, with a sound grip on civilization and the technological prowess yet extant.  I hope you are as inspired by it as am I, so we can keep it.