Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki has described a very interesting case of a cancer patient named Daniel. Daniel was a fit man in his mid 30's and was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. Within two months it had spread to his lymph nodes and within one year had sprouted secondary cancers in his lungs and liver. During this time Daniel could no longer play basketball and lost over 30 pounds. The cancer then spread to his right hip causing severe pain. The consulting doctor decided to treat the hip pain (tumor) with a high dose of radiation hoping that the damage to the tumor would provide pain relief. The doctor then booked a 3-month follow up appointment not really expecting Daniel to be alive. Three months later, Daniel not only showed up but had gained 11 pounds and was pain free. CT scan confirmed that the secondary tumors (lymph nodes, bone, lungs, liver) had vanished. Another three months later and Daniel had not only gained 5-10 pounds of muscle but was back to work. Fourteen years later Daniel is cancer free. The story can be found here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/04/22/3989940.htm Welcome to the abscopal effect. 'Ab" means away and 'scopal' refers to a target. Treatment of cancer in one part of the body results in destruction of all cancers anywhere else in the body. The New England Journal of Medicine also described an example of this promising but very rare phenomenon: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112824#t=articleTop Jedd Wolchok, MD., Ph.D, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and senior author of the study explained, "We are excited about these results and what we have seen in this one patient proves the principle that adding radiation therapy to immunotherapy may be a promising combination approach to treatment for advanced cancer. What we think is happening here is that the immune system's cancer-fighting response is turned up a notch with the addition of focused radiation". Perhaps in addition to the drugs employed to attack the tumor/s in a patients body, doses of radiation can provide a critical complement in cancer treatment.