Huffington Magazine Issue 80 | Page 49

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — YOU HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH LUNG CANCER. There is a bewildering array of drugs, and combinations of drugs, that may shrink the tumor and prolong your life. Or they could make matters worse and give you terrible side effects. In the past, this decision was mostly a crude guess, and it was often wrong. No longer. Now, your doctor draws blood and tissue, sends the information to a medical Big Data center that, in seconds, sequences your entire genome and, more importantly, maps how the proteins and the cells in your body are translating your specific DNA mutation into tumor cells. Your doctor then accesses a secure global “bank” of cancer DNA and tissue, and develops an individual cocktail for you, administering it with precise nan- otechnology. You recover at home, monitored by high-information devices connected through transmitters to your doctor and clinic. This is a glimpse of the future that Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong of Los Angeles has spent a decade imagining — and is now rapidly assembling. The technology and science are all at hand, he says. It’s “just” a matter of putting them together into a logical and humane whole.