After the initial assault, Corinne would always relax. If she wasn't happy, at least she was resigned.

A few minutes of physical captivity to distract yourself with conversation or contemplation. Perhaps to think what it will take to cure cancer in the future.

Cancer treatment nowadays is fairly effective, but it is based on a brutal shotgun theory. Kill every fast-growing cell in the body and maybe you can kill every fast-growing cancer cell at the same time. That's chemotherapy. Radiation attempts a similar task, with a smaller focus on the tumor. Surgery is also a brutal attempt to remove the offending part.

Today, much more specific approaches are being tested for many different kinds of cancer. It's important to remember that cancer is not one disease, but a group of many somewhat similar diseases. For Corinne's lymphoma, one new approach has isolated or created a specific substance that, when introduced to the body, seeks out and attaches itself to every lymphoma cell. They then combine a bit of radioactivity into that substance, so that when it attaches, it burns the lymphoma cell to the ground. We understand that this year, this approach — which costs about $28,000 for the single shot deal — is curing about half the people who get it (with some daunting side effects). Maybe next year.