Derek Thompson

We are waiting on a thousand perfect keys to pick a thousand stubborn locks. And today's episode is about the hardest lock of them all, pancreatic cancer. I will never forget the sunny Sunday morning in 2012 when I went out to brunch with my parents in Washington, D.C. I was 25 years old, and my mom, who was pretty much the cheeriest person in the world, was in a quiet and concerned mood.

We are waiting on a thousand perfect keys to pick a thousand stubborn locks. And today's episode is about the hardest lock of them all, pancreatic cancer. I will never forget the sunny Sunday morning in 2012 when I went out to brunch with my parents in Washington, D.C. I was 25 years old, and my mom, who was pretty much the cheeriest person in the world, was in a quiet and concerned mood.

She'd been dealing with stomach pains that wouldn't go away. And her doctor had just run tests for several serious conditions. A few weeks later, she called me to deliver the news. A tumor on her pancreas. Cancer. Not operable. You have to promise me one thing, she said. You will not look up the survival rate for pancreatic cancer.

She'd been dealing with stomach pains that wouldn't go away. And her doctor had just run tests for several serious conditions. A few weeks later, she called me to deliver the news. A tumor on her pancreas. Cancer. Not operable. You have to promise me one thing, she said. You will not look up the survival rate for pancreatic cancer.

She'd been dealing with stomach pains that wouldn't go away. And her doctor had just run tests for several serious conditions. A few weeks later, she called me to deliver the news. A tumor on her pancreas. Cancer. Not operable. You have to promise me one thing, she said. You will not look up the survival rate for pancreatic cancer.

When we hung up the phone, obviously I looked up the survival rate. Nine in ten people diagnosed with this disease die within the next five years. Most die much sooner. And within 18 months, my mom is gone. Cancer's power lives in its camouflage, its subterfuge.

When we hung up the phone, obviously I looked up the survival rate. Nine in ten people diagnosed with this disease die within the next five years. Most die much sooner. And within 18 months, my mom is gone. Cancer's power lives in its camouflage, its subterfuge.

When we hung up the phone, obviously I looked up the survival rate. Nine in ten people diagnosed with this disease die within the next five years. Most die much sooner. And within 18 months, my mom is gone. Cancer's power lives in its camouflage, its subterfuge.

The immune system is often compared to a military search and destroy operation, with our T-cells serving as something like expert snipers, hunting down antigens and seeking them out. But cancer kills so many of us because it looks so much like us. In his book, The Song of the Cell, Siddhartha Mukherjee says that what makes cancers so hard to treat is their invisibility.

The immune system is often compared to a military search and destroy operation, with our T-cells serving as something like expert snipers, hunting down antigens and seeking them out. But cancer kills so many of us because it looks so much like us. In his book, The Song of the Cell, Siddhartha Mukherjee says that what makes cancers so hard to treat is their invisibility.

The immune system is often compared to a military search and destroy operation, with our T-cells serving as something like expert snipers, hunting down antigens and seeking them out. But cancer kills so many of us because it looks so much like us. In his book, The Song of the Cell, Siddhartha Mukherjee says that what makes cancers so hard to treat is their invisibility.

The proteins that cancer cells make are, with a few exceptions, the same ones made by normal cells, except cancer cells distort the function of these proteins and hijack the cells toward malignant growth. This double-headed problem, cancer's kinship to the self and its invisibility, is the oncologist's nemesis.

The proteins that cancer cells make are, with a few exceptions, the same ones made by normal cells, except cancer cells distort the function of these proteins and hijack the cells toward malignant growth. This double-headed problem, cancer's kinship to the self and its invisibility, is the oncologist's nemesis.

The proteins that cancer cells make are, with a few exceptions, the same ones made by normal cells, except cancer cells distort the function of these proteins and hijack the cells toward malignant growth. This double-headed problem, cancer's kinship to the self and its invisibility, is the oncologist's nemesis.

To attack a cancer, one has to first make it re-visible, to coin a word, to the immune system. End quote. In this way, pancreatic cancer is the invisible emperor of all maladies. Almost no other disease is so good at hiding itself from the immune system for so long. Now here's the good news.

To attack a cancer, one has to first make it re-visible, to coin a word, to the immune system. End quote. In this way, pancreatic cancer is the invisible emperor of all maladies. Almost no other disease is so good at hiding itself from the immune system for so long. Now here's the good news.

To attack a cancer, one has to first make it re-visible, to coin a word, to the immune system. End quote. In this way, pancreatic cancer is the invisible emperor of all maladies. Almost no other disease is so good at hiding itself from the immune system for so long. Now here's the good news.

This might be the brightest moment for progress in pancreatic cancer research in decades, and possibly ever. In the last few years, scientists have developed new drugs that target the key gene mutation responsible for out-of-control cell growth.

This might be the brightest moment for progress in pancreatic cancer research in decades, and possibly ever. In the last few years, scientists have developed new drugs that target the key gene mutation responsible for out-of-control cell growth.

This might be the brightest moment for progress in pancreatic cancer research in decades, and possibly ever. In the last few years, scientists have developed new drugs that target the key gene mutation responsible for out-of-control cell growth.