Dr. Soon-Shiong believes that a safe, already-approved biologic drug can both prevent and treat cancer. He claims scientific evidence links COVID-19 to cancer vulnerability through p53 suppression. Despite regulatory and financial obstacles, he’s pursuing nationwide trials to make this treatment widely available—and sees political support as key to breaking through bureaucracy.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong still remembers the first time he sat across from Donald Trump. The topic wasn’t politics—it was medicine. Trump wanted to know what this South African–born physician and biotech entrepreneur was working on. Soon-Shiong, known for pioneering cancer research and developing breakthrough treatments, spoke about innovation, prevention, and the future of healing.
Before the night ended, Trump invited him to Trump Tower to continue the discussion. There, Trump offered him a chance to join his administration—perhaps to help transform the country’s approach to medicine. But Patrick declined. “Give me four years,” he told the president. “Let me finish this work first. Then, in your second term, we can talk again.” The second term never came then, but years later, as circumstances changed, Soon-Shiong found himself once again believing that collaboration might finally be possible.
At the center of his life’s work is a bold project called BioShield—a medical platform built to prevent and treat cancer, not just manage it. Unlike traditional drugs that attack tumors after they appear, BioShield is designed to protect the body before cancer begins. The treatment is based on a drug that’s already FDA-approved and now being tested in clinical trials backed by the National Cancer Institute. What makes it remarkable is that these trials include healthy participants, particularly those born with genetic risks like Lynch Syndrome, who are predisposed to developing cancer. Major research hospitals—like the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic—are already involved, giving the project a sense of serious scientific credibility.
But Soon-Shiong’s discoveries didn’t stop there. His research began uncovering something unsettling: a possible connection between COVID-19 and cancer. According to his findings, the virus appears to suppress a crucial gene called p53—the “guardian of the genome,” responsible for preventing cells from turning cancerous. Elephants, he explains, have eight copies of the p53 gene, which is why they rarely get cancer. Humans have only one. “COVID knocks it down,” he says, a simple statement with staggering implications. Together with Dr. Carlos Cordon, he’s preparing to publish these findings, which may explain why more young people are developing aggressive cancers in the years following COVID infection.
Meanwhile, trials at his clinics have shown promising results. Patients with head and neck cancer, lung cancer, and even glioblastoma—the deadliest brain cancer—are responding in ways that give him hope. His team is also developing treatments for patients with long COVID, aiming to restore immune balance. For Soon-Shiong, maintaining strong natural defenses—healthy lymphocytes, NK cells, and T-cells—isn’t just a medical recommendation; it’s the foundation of human resilience.
Yet for all the progress, he faces a wall of bureaucracy. Each randomized clinical trial costs up to $300 million, requiring years of paperwork and thousands of participants. He’s frustrated by the system’s resistance, and by what he sees as a misplaced focus on profit over progress. “We give chemotherapy drugs priority review,” he says, “but not biologics that are safer and could change everything.”
To him, it’s more than a scientific challenge—it’s a moral one. In a world where Big Pharma’s incentives often favor lifelong treatment over prevention, Soon-Shiong stands as a rare voice insisting that healing is possible. His message is simple but radical: the cure for cancer may already exist—we just need the courage, the leadership, and the freedom to use it.
Source from: Megyn Kelly – 4.05M subscribers