​​What is 4D Printing?

4-dimensional printing (4D printing; also known as 4D bioprinting, active origami, or shape-morphing systems) uses the same techniques of 3D printing through computer-programmed deposition of material in successive layers to create a three-dimensional object. However, 4D printing adds the dimension of transformation over time. It is therefore a type of programmable matter, wherein after the fabrication process, the printed product reacts with parameters within the environment (Humidity, Temperature, etc.) and changes its form accordingly. The ability to do so arises from the near infinite configurations at a micrometer resolution, creating solids with engineered molecular spatial distributions and thus allowing unprecedented multifunctional performance. 4D printing is a relatively new advance in biofabrication technology, rapidly emerging as a new paradigm in disciplines such as bioengineering, materials science, chemistry, and computer sciences.

NARRATION:What symptoms did you notice before being diagnosed with cancer?

 I didn’t notice the symptoms myself. A friend of mine, who is a raving hypochondriac and has seen the doctor dozens of times because he was convinced he had melanoma and was going to die, looked at my thumb and said, “You need to see a doctor right away! I think you’ve got melanoma!!” I said, “Sure…but I think I must have slammed my thumb in a door or something. I’m not too worried about it.” Contrary to my natural instincts, I visited a nurse practitioner later in the week, and she looked at my thumb and referred me to a dermatologist, and he looked at my thumb and performed a biopsy and sent the sample to a pathologist in Oregon, and a few days later I got the call. Here are some photos so you can see what a subungual melanoma looks like:

But the news is not all bad. Although most of my right thumb is gone, I have learned to hit the space bar with my left thumb (which took 6 weeks), and have written two more books since the amputation, removal of all of the lymph nodes in my right armpit, and 9 months of chemotherapy. I reached my five-year survival milestone in May 2017, and plan to keep on writing until the end

Update December 2018: Because of the interest in this answer, I thought I should add a photo of my hand taken one year after the surgical amputation. My surgeon did an excellent job: I have received numerous complements from other doctors.

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Given that the five-year survival rate of stage 3 cancer patients is very low, why is the therapy still being carried out in patients with stage 3 cancer? Why not just go to palliative therapy?

Current survival rates are outdated. I researched them thoroughly. The stats are old and do not reflect the effectiveness of new treatments.

I was stage 4 and told I was out of options. All cancer agency oncologists confirmed my terminal diagnosis and prognosis of death in 3 - 18 months. These people believe that my type of cancer can only be cured by surgical removal of the tumour. As I was not a surgical candidate, I was terminal.

Last communication with them was April 2017. After only 2 chemo treatments and 2 immunotherapy treatments, I am in remission. If my next pet scan is clear, I will be considered cured (if you are disease free for 2 years, you are considered cured.)

Why did I agree to chemo and immunotherapy? Why not? What did I have to lose? It might give me a little more time to live. My plan was to try it and if it made ill, I’d stop. Chemo made me horribly sick and I had a severe allergic reaction to immunotherapy. So I stopped.

I lacked confidence in cancer agency oncologists and sought an independent oncologist for confirmation that this was the end game. Having reviewed my medical records, the oncologist anticipated an emaciated end stage client to walk into his office. At first meet he knew things didn’t add up. Further, he advised that I was not out of options. Treatment was possible, and ill effects of treatment could be mitigated with medications administered appropriately. Cure was possible. That was the truth and I am proof of it.

Once you label someone as terminal, they become that, but it is the individual that determines the out come, not the doctors. I believe that no one has the right to destroy another’s autonomy and hope. Life is possible until it ends.

What would happen if a few cancer cells from another person were injected into your bloodstream?

Something like this has already been done in a horribly unethical experiment. In the 1950s, a virologist and cancer researcher at Sloan Kettering named Chester Southam was working with the famous HeLa strain of cancer cells (named for the source patient Henrietta Lacks). He wanted to know if there was a danger of these giving cancer to one of the researchers by accidental exposure.

In 1954, he injected HeLa cells into a dozen hospitalized cancer patients without telling them what he was doing or why. He lied and said he was testing their immune systems, but he was really experimenting to see if the cancer from Henrietta Lacks would grow in another person. Several of these grew to tumors about 2 cm in size and one metastasized to the patient’s lymph nodes.

Since these patients already had other cancers, Southam next wanted to see if the HeLa tumors would take in healthy persons. One hundred fifty state prisoners volunteered for various reasons (such as feeling it would help atone for their crimes) and he injected HeLa into 65 of them in 1956. Tumors grew in the prisoners too, on the arms at the injection site. All of the prisoners’ bodies fought them off and the tumors vanished.

Southam injected HeLa into more than 600 other people in the years following that, incuding every OB-GYN surgery patient at Sloan Kettering, lying to these patients about what he was doing. “We’re just testing for cancer,” he told them.

When all of this came to light in the 1960s, a reporter from Science asked Southam why he didn’t inject the cells into himself. His reply was basically that he was more important than these patients; his life less dispensable. “Let’s face it,” he said to the reporter, “there are relatively few skilled cancer researchers, and it seemed stupid to take even a little risk.”

Stupid to risk his life for research; not too stupid (in his opinion) to risk the lives of hundreds of other people.

The ethical codes in place today would prohibit such a horrific experiment. Southam’s career would have been at an end if he had done such experiments in disregard to any such code of medical ethics, and he likely would have been stripped of his medical license and perhaps imprisoned. But such codes didn’t exist in the 1950s.

What are the best ways to fight cancer?

So, people diagnosed with cancer don't "fight" it. We undergo a specific treatment plan recommend by our medical team for our particular disease.

For example, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer 6 yrs ago. I did not have breast cancer previously. It had already spread to my bones when it was found. Metastatic disease is terminal so I will always be in treatment. Currently, my medications are working and my scans do not detect active cancer. At some point, my meds will stop working and I'll go on to something else. If you look at my pic, you'll see I look like anyone else. That's a recent picture.

If your question is how do you "prevent" cancer? That's a whole different animal. There are countless studies out there that will advise to eat a particular way, stay away from specific foods, never drink alcohol, drink coffee when the moon is full and exercise 20 mins a day every other week. (I'm kidding about the last two). You can do EVERYTHING "right" and one can still be diagnosed with cancer. Someone else can smoke 12 packs of cigarettes a day, drink bottles of vodka their whole life and NEVER get cancer. As long as you're breathing you're going to be at risk. IMO - live each day the way you want, eat & drink what you want in moderation. You cannot live your life in fear of "what if". In other words - eat the damn cupcake.

Finally, for the love of everything, don't use battle language. We don't fight cancer, we have an illness and were doing what needs to be done. And when someone dies, never EVER say they "lost their battle". It implies they gave up or didn't do enough to stay alive.

THAT'S the truth about cancer. Mine anyway.