Angels, Demons and all the Hosts

ANGELOLOGY
M. M. NINAN
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A tumor can be non cancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Benign tumors usually stay
in one place in the body and do not erode in to the surrounding structures; on the other hand
malignant tumors may erode in to the surrounding tissues. The malignant tumors may also
erode in to the blood vessels and lymphatic vessels. After eroding, the malignant tumor cells
may be showered in to the blood or lymphatic stream and may travel to different parts of the
body, where they may start a secondary growth. This phenomenon of cancer cells traveling
through the blood or lymphatic vessels, to form secondary growth in sites that are far away
from the original tumor is called metastasis. When cells from a cancer like breast cancer
spread to another organ like the lung, the cancer is still called breast cancer with lung metastasis,
not lung cancer. The tissue type from which a cancer originates as well as the nature of
the underlying genetic changes largely determines the behavior of that cancer. The lung metastasis
from the breast cancer behaves like breast cancer and would generally respond to the
same type of drugs used in the treatment of breast cancer. Again the type of cell from which
the cancer originated will generally determine the speed at which it grows, and its resistance
to treatment, but at the same cancers arising from the same tissue may often show marked
variations in behavior. For example breast cancer in one person may grow very slowly over a
period of several years, where as in another person with breast cancer, which is arising from
the same cell type, may have very aggressive course and may progress in few weeks.
A cancer is an uncontrolled proliferation of cells.
• In some the rate is fast; in others, slow; but in all cancers the cells never stop dividing.
• This distinguishes cancers — malign tumors — from benign growths like moles where
their cells eventually stop dividing.
• Cancers are clones. No matter how many trillions of cells are present in the cancer,
they are all descended from a single ancestral cell.
• Cancers begin as a primary tumor. Most (maybe all) solid tumors shed cells into the
lymph and blood. Most of these lack the potential to develop into tumors. However,
some of the shed cells are able to take up residence and establish secondary tumors —
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