Picture this: For half a century, we’ve poured billions into a relentless “war on cancer,” cheering every shrunken tumor like a battlefield triumph. But what if those victories are illusions—smoke and mirrors that leave patients more vulnerable than ever? That’s the gut-wrenching wake-up call from Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire surgeon and biotech trailblazer who’s spent decades on the front lines of oncology. In a series of raw, urgent posts this month, he’s blown the lid off a system he says is not just flawed, but fatally self-sabotaging.
Soon-Shiong, who invented the blockbuster chemo drug Abraxane and now leads ImmunityBio, isn’t some armchair critic. He’s treated thousands, including at his own Chan Soon-Shiong Family Medicine center in Culver City, California. And right now, he’s sounding the alarm: Our go-to weapons—chemotherapy and radiation—are collateral damage machines, wiping out the very soldiers our bodies need to win the fight.
Let’s break it down, because this isn’t abstract science; it’s the story of why so many cancer battles end in heartbreak. At the heart of our defense? Natural killer (NK) cells and T cells—think of them as the body’s elite hit squad. These immune warriors patrol for rogue cells, the ones that mutate into tumors, and take them out before they spread. NK cells are the fast-response assassins, zapping invaders on sight, while T cells are the memory keepers, learning from threats to mount smarter attacks later.
But here’s the betrayal: Chemo and radiation don’t discriminate. They blast everything in their path, including those NK and T cells. The result? A temporary tumor shrink-down that doctors high-five over, but underneath, the immune system lies in ruins. Metastases—the sneaky spreaders—then run wild, turning a containable foe into a full-blown killer. It’s like scorching the earth to stop a fire, only to invite a wildfire.
Soon-Shiong lays it bare in a viral thread that’s rippled across social media: “For 75 years, we have operated on a fundamental fallacy.” He spotlights the vicious cycle—chemo sparks anemia, so we pump in Epogen to boost red blood cells and keep the poison flowing. That amps up the assault, nuking neutrophils (infection fighters), so we hit back with Neupogen. Rinse, repeat. It’s a hamster wheel of destruction, all greenlit by FDA rules that prioritize “maximum tolerated dose”—the most poison a body can stomach without keeling over—and tumor shrinkage as the win metric. Overall survival? Barely a footnote.
The science backs him up, and it’s chilling. A fresh study from Ohio State University oncologists, presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer, crunched data from hundreds of patients and found that recovering absolute lymphocyte count (ALC)—a simple blood measure of those NK and T cells—doubled median survival to nearly five years in advanced lung cancer. Low ALC? You’re playing Russian roulette with recurrence. And it’s not just lungs: Across 10 tumor types, Soon-Shiong’s team has submitted papers showing the same grim pattern—immune wipeout equals poorer odds, no matter the cancer.
Even worse, this hits the young hardest, where cases are exploding. Soon-Shiong shared his devastation over a 13-year-old dying from metastatic colon cancer—a rarity that’s now alarmingly common, possibly tied to post-COVID immune dips or environmental toxins. “There is a tremendous need for urgency,” he wrote, his words heavy with the weight of a doctor who’s seen too many goodbyes.
So, what’s the fix? Soon-Shiong insists it’s staring us in the face: Flip the script. Start by shielding and supercharging the immune system, not gutting it. His weapon of choice? Anktiva, a lab-tweaked version of interleukin-15 (IL-15), a natural protein that rallies NK and T cells like a drill sergeant. Approved by the FDA last year for bladder cancer, it’s shown jaw-dropping results in trials: Complete remissions in tough cases like Merkel cell, triple-negative breast, and pancreatic cancers—tumors that laugh at standard care. Patients walk out as outpatients, no hospital gowns or IV marathons, with memory cells that keep the cancer at bay long-term.
Think of Anktiva as your body’s reboot button. In Soon-Shiong’s “BioShield” protocol, it’s paired with NK cell infusions and tumor-specific vaccines, turning the immune system into a precision strike force. Early data from his center? Four straight responders in HPV-linked head and neck cancers, with viral loads dropping to zero. It’s not a magic pill, but in over 100 late-stage patients who’d failed everything else, it’s stretched lives and eased suffering.
If you’re navigating a diagnosis, here’s a no-BS guide to tapping this shift: First, arm yourself with questions. At your next appointment, ask for your ALC (aim above 1,000 cells per microliter) and NLR ratio (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte; under 3 is a green light). These are routine blood tests—free intel on your immune firepower. If they’re tanked, push for immune-sparing options. Anktiva’s available for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer via BCG combo (six weekly bladder instillations, then maintenance), but off-label trials are expanding. Check ImmunityBio’s site or ClinicalTrials.gov for spots—his center gets 10,000 pleas a month but slots just 30, a heartbreaking bottleneck.
The real roadblock? Not science, but inertia—and yeah, profits. Big Pharma thrives on high-dose chemo cycles; reshaping guidelines means rewriting fortunes. Soon-Shiong’s plea is simple, searing: “The solution is right here. It only takes the signature of a pen to make it work nationwide, saving lives.” He’s pitched it to presidents, from Biden’s Moonshot (which he helped spark, then watched veer off-course) to whispers of Trump-era overhauls. One executive order could fast-track immune therapies as first-line, before the poisons flow.
It’s a call that tugs at the gut—because behind the stats are stories. Parents burying kids too young. Fighters clawing for one more holiday. Soon-Shiong, who lost his own mom to cancer’s old playbook, fights with the fire of someone who’s lived the loss. “The power within all of us to fight cancer,” he posted recently. “The disease is the collapse of the immune system.”
Will we listen? Or keep cheering pyrrhic wins while the real enemy slips away? The pen’s in the room. Time to sign.
This article draws from Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s recent X posts (October 2025), including his critiques shared under @DrPatSoonShiong
, and supporting data from OncoDaily and ImmunityBio publications.
