New treatments for cancer are being discovered at an ever increasing rate. Unfortunately, no single treatment can yet successfully treat all cancers that arise in the lungs, much less cancers that arise in all parts of the body. Cancer is not one disease, but many, featuring many types of cancer cells with different (and sometimes several) mutations in those cells, originating in various parts of the body with different cell structures, and threatening different bodily functions. A single tumor can even contain more than one type of cancer cell. There are as many different cancers as individuals who have cancer.

Here’s a science fiction concept:

Let’s invent a artificial intelligence device that enters the body via a single small injection, travels through the blood stream, locates all cancer cells, determines their characteristics, surveys them to determine how many are susceptible to drug A, drug B, surgery, radiation, or nutritional supports, then reports out to the doctor on the optimal treatment for this individual’s cancer.

Or, better yet, the device completes the cell inventory, instructs the immune system how to eliminate each type of cancer cell without harming healthy tissues, and reports out to the patient and their doctor on whatever assistance the immune system needs to do it. Maybe an alert shows up on the patient’s wristband or Google glass and reads, “Drink 0.25 liters of green tea with 3 ml lemon juice daily for 2 weeks, avoid shrimp, eat an oreo before bed, and get radiation treatment for your liver.”

Yeah, that should be easy.

Yes, Sheldon Cooper, that’s sarcastic.