A Sit Down With Cancer

As we bid farewell to last year, let us note that several exciting advances in the treatment of cancer were approved in 2017. New immunotherapy agents with high response rates against recalcitrant tumors led some of us optimistic types to believe that for the first time we might have unearthed the secret to victory. I tried to remain cool and collected while daydreaming about the day when this vile disease is eradicated, but my enthusiasm got the best of me and, like a cheeky reporter, I went so far as to schedule an interview with Cancer, in order to gauge how sanguine it feels about the future. Like Porfiry Petrovitch, the magistrate in Crime and Punishment who questions the murderer Raskolnikov, I sat down with Cancer, ready to interrogate it under the klieg lights. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.Caption/concept by Craig R. Hildreth, MDArtwork by Jon Carter, cartertoons.com