Author Jay Lake has passed away after a long fight with cancer

If you're not sure who he was (I wasn't): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Lake

> Joseph E. Lake, Jr. (b. June 6, 1964 - June 1, 2014) was a science fiction and fantasy writer.

> ...

> Lake publicly revealed his advanced case of colon cancer. He was diagnosed in April 2008, and it then "progressed from a single tumor to metastatic disease affecting the lung and liver, recurring after multiple surgeries and chemotherapy courses." He used crowd funding through YouCaring to pay for whole genome sequencing, towards the "small possibility that the results of such a test...may suggest a treatment path." Eventually, however, Lake succumbed to his illness on June 1, 2014.

Reading his blog, it appears he went though a similar immunotherapy trial at NIH that I underwent almost two years ago (mine for melanoma). I'm saddened to hear that it was not successful for him.

Immunotherapy treatments continue to improve, making them a viable treatment path for various types of cancer. The adoptive cell therapy approach, which Jay underwent, uses one's own immune system to fight one's cancer cells is an approach to personalized cancer treatment, compared the blunt clubs that most chemotherapies are. These treatments are moving from science fiction to science fact.

P.S. Please support the continued funding of NIH and NCI cancer research by the Federal government. These agencies represent some of the best stuff that is being done by the government.

Gifted writer, deserves postmortem attention. RIP.