Cancer is something close to my heart. For various reasons, it has for the longest time been the area that I wanted to study and do research in. And now that I am FINALLY in a cancer biology program, I realized how little I know. Not that I was ever arrogant in my knowledge of cancer, but I gladly admitted my ignorance about a disease that continues to kill so many people every year. The aspects of cancer are many, and to even explain everything is next to impossible. For a history of cancer and how current research stands from a clinical standpoint, there is an excellent book called 'The Emperor of All Maladies'. But for those who don't have the patience to read a 500 page book, here is a small explanation.
To make it more relatable, we will use India's current political situation as an analogy.
The day you were born is like India getting independence. The cells are the millions of people who saw our country celebrate its first independence day. There were the good people, the young, the old, the restless and that is exactly how a new born baby is too. As time progressed, there were new people, new ideas, new developments and progress very similar to a new-born growing up.
Much like India in the its infancy, there was a clear demaracation of power in the country. There were some families which were more powerful than the others. Ditto with cells, that some are more robust and can divide and take over the tissue. Like India learning its lesson after the emergency and not electing Mrs. Gandhi, sometimes the immune system wakes up and takes care of the cancerous cells and destroys them. However, just like we failed to eliminate corruption of power completely way back then, some cells escape this process.
Life seems normal again, and we get on with life. In the meantime, a corrupt politician is gathering his forces silently without grabbing too much attention much like a cancer that has formed. One fine day, we wake up to see another extremely corrupt person as our PM and that is pretty much how we will realize we have rogue tissue too. A scar that we ignored, a lump that dint matter, an infection we dint care about etc etc. We get the devastating news that person has cancer, and it is taking over more than just the primary organ.
Exactly how we bring an RTI or a Lokayukta to combat corruption, we seek our first line of defense by chemotherapy and other suitable treatments.Sometimes, this fixes the problem and the politician is sent to jail aka the cancer is controlled.
Control isn't elimination and there is always a chance that the politico gets bail, and comes out stronger and cleverer but most importantly with a hungrier appetitie for money. In cancer, the tissue metastasizes to other parts and shows more resistance and becomes that much more devastating. Like a politico finding other means to make money when one method lands him in jail, cancer cells seek other tissue to derive nutrition and grow incessantly.
When this goes out of hand, much like Anna Hazare, more radical treatments will be required. For those who followed the crazy circus that was the Lokpal, sometimes the corrupt government (like a metastasized resistant tumor) will not yield to any call for normalcy (treatments will fail).
In India's case, the Govt agreed to the terms, but tumor cells dont buckle as easily, and the result sadly is the demise of the person.
Note: 1. As a patriotic Indian, I would never wish harm to the country even from a scumbag politico, but this was the best analogy I could think of.
2. Not all cancer cells kill, just like not all politicos are corrupt.
