Jonathan, my heart truly goes out to you. Someone very close to me was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma a few months ago, so while I can barely imagine what it must feel like to face this, I do know what the medical picture looks like and the information available looks grim.

I don't want to tell you about your disease, but if you haven't yet, please find a way to get evaluated at md anderson. They're in Texas, and possibly the best (at least top four or five) place in the world to be treated for melanoma. And they're one of three hospitals in the country with trials ongoing in TIL therapy (sometimes referred to as ACT), which, having done as much research as a lay person can do, seems to the most promising avenue of treatment with long term response rates as high as 70%.

And just to give you some hope, as horrible a diagnosis as you've been given, there has never been a better time in history to receive it. There are literally new treatments coming down the pipeline every few months.