There are many similarities between macro society and micro society. Many seemingly abstruse cancer professional problems will become easier to understand if compared with the development of human society.
For example: Why are cancer cells not necessarily terrible? Why does cancer usually take more than 10 years? Why do cancer cells metastasize? Why have you been growing up? Why did you live so long? Why can't you starve cancer cells? Why do anticancer drugs have side effects?
Today, let's look at the story of human society, how to help us understand the following seven important issues about cancer.
Why not kill all the cancer cells?
Many people talk about cancer discoloration, and always think that anti-cancer must kill all cancer cells. In fact, it is not necessary, as long as the cancer cells are controlled and prevented from erupting.
Cancer cells in the body are not doomed to affect health, just as human beings on the earth are not doomed to destruction.
Modern humans (Homo sapiens) have been born for more than 200,000 years. Before the modern industrial revolution and population explosion, human beings had little influence on the overall ecology of the earth.
In the same way, before cancer cells get out of control, the impact on the body is actually very small.
Among men in their thirties, about 30% have cancer cells in their prostate, and among people over 60, the proportion is as high as 70%, but only 14% will be diagnosed as prostate cancer.
A large number of data prove that human body and cancer cells can be preserved for a long time, even for life.
(Image from Station Cool Luohai)
Why is the incubation period of cancer cells as long as 10~30 years?
Most cancers take a long time from the initial cell mutation to the final real canceration, usually 10~30 years. Why does it take so long?
Mainly waiting for new gene mutations.
New mutations have various functions, some can make cancer cells grow faster and not die easily, some can make cancer cells transform their surrounding environment and serve themselves, and some can help cancer cells escape the supervision of the immune system.
This is exactly the same as human history.
As can be seen from the picture below, human beings were born 200,000 years ago, and the population has been very small. It was not until 1800 that it broke through 10 billion, and then it began to explode.
(Figure: Earth's population growth curve)
Why did it take so long? Because we are waiting for the industrial revolution, just like cancer cells are waiting for new mutations.
The industrial revolution has brought clean domestic water and large-scale production of antibiotics and vaccines to human beings, so the mortality rate of human beings has decreased and life expectancy has increased. At the same time, the achievements of the industrial revolution enable human beings to better transform the environment, serve themselves and escape various natural restrictions.
Why can't hunger kill cancer cells?
There are often pseudoscientific articles saying that cancer cells love sugar, so patients can starve cancer cells without sugar.
This is a very naive idea.
This is like saying that human beings love to eat meat, so if we take all the pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and fish that human beings love from the earth, we can starve the whole human beings to death and save the earth?
Dream.
On the one hand, human beings are very adaptable and have no traditional meat. We can eat worms, snakes and crabs, and Cantonese people laugh without saying a word. It doesn't matter if you take all these away again. Many people can be vegetarian! Rabbits dare to bite when they are anxious, and people dare to grab bamboo with pandas when they are hungry!
Secondly, even if people can starve to death, before that, more species and even the whole ecosystem on the earth have collapsed, because without pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and fish, they can't live. If there are no humans and no other creatures, is it still meaningful to spend so much effort?
The reason why "starving cancer cells" is not reliable is the same.
First, cancer cells are highly adaptable. Without sugar, cancer cells will eat other things, such as lactic acid.
Secondly, many normal cells in the body, including nerve cells, myocardial cells and various immune cells in the brain, need sugar. These important cells may have starved to death before starving cancer cells.
Why do anticancer drugs always have various side effects?
No matter chemotherapy drugs, targeted drugs and immune drugs, there are always various side effects, which may even be fatal.
Why?
Mainly because cancer cells are so similar to normal cells in essence. Any method of killing cancer cells may injure normal functional cells by mistake, which is the side effect.
Removing cancer cells is actually very simple. Cancer cells are afraid of acid, alkali, hunger, cold, heat and all kinds of things. If you inject sulfuric acid into the patient's blood, the cancer cells must be dead! But the problem is that the patient is dead by this time.
It's as if it's not difficult to wipe out mankind from the earth.
Nuclear bombs can be solved, asteroids hitting the earth can be solved, and the water on the earth can be seriously polluted. But the problem is that the whole life circle of the earth is gone.
(Image from Station Cool Luohai)
But can you think of any way to get rid of human beings without harming any other species or environment on earth?
Very difficult. Because people are so similar to other animals in essence.
Why do cancer cells metastasize?
The vast majority of cancer patients died of metastasis. If a tumor cell stays in one place all its life, it is usually a benign tumor. As long as it can be completely removed by surgery, it can be cured.
Why do cancer cells metastasize?
Because the world is so big, I want to go out and have a look. As an organism, cancer cells are always looking for a new settlement environment to satisfy the desire of population expansion.
Isn't that what humans do?
Our ancestors were originally in Africa, but a few curious people came out and ventured all the way to Europe, Asia, America and Oceania, causing countless deaths and injuries, but a few succeeded in settling in the new environment and multiplying into local Adam and Eve.
So do cancer cells. They started from one place. At first, it was a benign primary tumor, but occasionally, due to gene mutation, some cells became particularly curious and began to leave the group and enter the blood or lymphatic circulation.
In this way, most curious cancer cells died during metastasis, and only a few survived and settled in new organs to grow new tumors.
Others ask, why sometimes the tumor is still small and it has spread widely?
In fact, it is not difficult to understand. When there were only a few hundred people in some small fishing villages, people had already waded through mountains and explored everywhere.
Why do cancer cells keep growing?
Because most cancer cells want to have more offspring.
This is the same as human beings.
Subjectively, human beings don't want to destroy the earth, but just want to live a good life, have a good family and have more offspring. However, the result of this is a rapid expansion of the overall population and accelerated deterioration of the ecology.
This is almost an unsolvable trend, because individuals will not consider the overall interests unless they are forced to do so. Family planning in China is to force individuals to obey the overall interests, which objectively helps to protect the earth.
But this "whole" is still just China, not all mankind. When this policy brought about the rapid aging of China society and hurt the national interests, it was naturally abandoned.
It is impossible for most people to give up reproduction just for the benefit of the earth or for the benefit of all mankind.
Similarly, for the sake of health, cancer cells will not grow slowly. If cancer cells can adhere to family planning, scientists can be laid off.
(Image from Station Cool Luohai)
Why can cancer cells live so long?
Cancer cells not only divide into many offspring, but also survive for a long time.
Why don't cancer cells die?
Because I haven't lived enough.
Although it is said that if everyone's life span is shorter, the load on the earth will be smaller, and human beings may exist as a species for a long time, since ancient times, people have been most concerned about how to live forever after solving the basic problem of food and clothing.
The emperor loves an alchemist, so let's not talk about it. Even when Bodhi taught the Monkey King skills, the monkey would ask, "Can you live forever?"
In recent years, countless rich people from all walks of life around the world have paid scientists to study the biological mechanism of aging, hoping to reverse this process. Some people even claim to raise the average life expectancy of human beings to 500 years.
I am very supportive of improving the quality of life of the elderly, supporting cancer research, Alzheimer's disease research and so on. But I don't think it's a good idea to let people live an average of 500 years, either from the earth's resources or from the philosophy of life.
I once asked a big boss, "What if everyone really lives for so long and the resources of the earth are not enough?"
He smiled and said, "You are too short-sighted. We will certainly be able to develop other resources and even immigrate into space. "
Interestingly, cancer cells think so before killing people, and die with others.