He is a cancer survivor, like many people over 80. Cancers get more common as we age. So that isn't so remarkable, perhaps, but HOW he got better is an amazing feat, which has applications far beyond cancer.
President Carter got treatment that is connected to Yamanaka's work. Dr Shinya Yamanaka got his Nobel Prize for work on stem cells. He now works for a firm developing CAR-T treatment for cancer.
Basically, CAR-T is a synthetic immune system.
We take some blood from the cancer patient, separate out the T lymphocytes, and genetically modify them. The improved T cells get multiplied and then reintroduced by drip to the patient, usually after other treatments.
The new mutant T cells can live and divide in their original body, just as before. They are permanent. Only they know how to find and kill the cancer, WHEREVER it tries to hide. And they never stop working. So getting a recurrence? Good luck with that, cancer.
It is like calling in the X-Men. To save the President. In his bloodstream. President Carter is the very first superhuman mutant President.
CAR-T is relatively successful when everything else fails. Read more about it here.
The cost is prohibitively expensive at the moment, but that will not last long.
The interesting thing about the tech is its potential to be used to remove senescent zombie cells as anti ageing treatment. Unlike the specificity of tumor markers per individual cancer, generic T cells can be made to knock out senescent cells in everybody relatively cheaply.
We're looking at a single treatment, mind you, one bag o drips, that PERMANENTLY gives us immunity to that ageing pathway. Plus immunities to any other key common tumor markers could be added.
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