This paragraph just flung out of my mind, and although it sits oddly in the paper, I think I like it.
Metastasis is a daunting subject, probably because of its immense scope which requires the expertise of so many different branches of biology – and because despite valiant efforts, it is hard to conceive of a reasonable method of treating metastatic disease. As horrific as classic warfare was, it was at least “winnable;” the latter half of the last century saw the rise of guerilla warfare and terrorism, blurring the lines between civilian and military and making millenia of military tactics and technological extravagance decidedly irrelevant. The parallel between this new battlefield which knows neither boundaries nor conventional rules and the campaigns to halt and cure metastatic cancer is considerable. In both cases, our capacity to destroy far outstrips our capacity to renew; given that curing metastasis through the death of the patient is highly unacceptable, it is clear that any solution must diplomatically engage both destruction and renewal, thus requiring the full knowledge of life as we do and do not understand it, from embryogenesis to apoptosis and necrosis.
Leave a Reply