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In the very early 80s, as a middle-school student in the suburbs of Houston with a new Apple ][+, I attended a personal computing show downtown. One of the boo
by gojomo 8y ago
In the very early 80s, as a middle-school student in the suburbs of Houston with a new Apple ][+, I attended a personal computing show downtown.
One of the booths was showing off a game, called "Killer T-Cell" if I remember correctly, based on some local university research. You'd move a little T-Cell around, through a changing pink maze of good tissue, to absorb & destroy any cancerous (purple?) cells that popped up.
It used hi-res mode but seemed to be played on a grid based on the Apple ][+'s low-res mode – and sometimes that mode flashed through as well. (I can't remember if that was a glitch or purposeful effect.) It was pretty crude in graphics and gameplay, but we bought it, for maybe $5 or $10, on a 5.25" floppy – moreso for the novelty and intellectual content than anything else.
Over 37 years ago, that game conveyed to me the idea that people probably get a lot of microcancers all the time, which are routinely cleaned up by the immune system's T-cells, and only become a problem when the immune system is finally overwhelmed or tricked.
Dr. Allison's Wikipedia page suggests he was at Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center at that time, in his early 30s. I wonder if the game was motivated by his research... or even if he was the person who sold me that game.
- antoncohen 8y agoThe professor that created "Killer T-Cell" was Dr. Elton Stubblefield[1][2]. Both Dr. Elton Stubblefield and Dr. James Allison were at University of Texas MD Anderson Center in Houston. [1] https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/10/28/Beating-cancer-the-video-way/9982404625600/ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/10/28/Beating-cancer-the-v... [2] http://jplaffont.photoshelter.com/image/I0000BBbrdiNVlfI http://jplaffont.photoshelter.com/image/I0000BBbrdiNVlfI
- gojomo 8y agoThank you! My searches had turned up nothing. (Was something like Lexis-Nexus needed to find that old UPI story?)
- _red 8y agoI'm not a scientist, medical researcher, nor even very knowledgeable about biology. However, as part of my work, we deal with some prominent medical research institutions. Over visits and dinners I've got to talk with a few of their leading anti-cancer researchers. One thing that was explained to me was a researcher saying that current findings are pointing out that cancer would be better thought of as a "immune deficiency" disease, rather than anything else. For something to be "cancerous", must meet two basic conditions: (a) It short circuits the genes in the cell which limit reproduction, cancers instead reprogram to reproduce continuously. (b) Are in stealth-mode to the bodies immune system. Evidently, your body can detect "A" and self-contain those micro-tumors basically in cysts as it was explained. However when "A" and "B" combine, your body can't deal with it because it can't even see it. This particular professors research involved genetically altering cancer cells so that they could again be visible to the bodies immune system and marked as "defective". Thus, the body could rid itself of the cancer naturally.
- HeadsUpHigh 8y agoYes, the microcancer idea is correct, however in most of these cases the cells also produce signals that notify the immune system that they have gone out of control, which then promptly kills them. It's also why patients that suffer from a specific type of skin cancer( can't recall the name) are usually HIV carriers while that type is very rare in the general population. So the cancers that we do see in the general population ( i.e. not immunosuppressed) are usually the ones the immune system can't deal with.