Editing Cancer (section)

== IRL Fluff ==
In your body, right now, cells are shitting the bed. And they do it nonstop, all the time, and such is life. 

Sometimes, however, [[Not as planned|a dying cell gives death the middle finger and decides to persist]], often due to a mutation in a gene called tp53 that regulates DNA repair mechanisms and normally causes the cell to [[Blam]] itself if it picks up too many genetic defects. And then it multiplies, squatting on valuable real estate in your body while picking up even more mutations, some of which accelerate the process of cell division far beyond its normal limits. Before you know it, one of two things happen;
*You either get a benign tumor, which grows without invading its neighbors or is successfully contained by your body, but this does '''not''' mean you are 100% safe; benign tumors can crowd out vital shit if they get large enough, and in some cases like tumors affecting glands, the tumor may produce hormones at dangerously high levels, causing a variety of unpleasant conditions unless they're dealt with. The moles that dot your skin are an example of a benign tumor (specifically, they come from cells that produce melanin, the pigment that makes your skin tan when exposed to ultraviolet light), as are warts (in this case, the tumor is the product of a virus which has genes that have similar effects to the mutations mentioned above; incidentally, this is also why genital warts are a risk factor for certain types of cancer). 
*Or, you get malignant tumors, the "proper" cancers by definition, which are basically the cellular equivalents to [[Zombie Plague|plague zombies]]. They tend to spread ''far'' beyond the tumor's original location, develop further mutations that allow them to bypass the immune system and can force the growth of new blood vessels to provide them with oxygen and nutrients (the name "cancer" comes from the shape of these abnormal blood vessels, which resemble crab claws). Malignant tumors are hard as balls to remove (since the cancer cells can travel through lymphatic vessels to create new tumors elsewhere even after the original tumor is dealt with) unless you know what you're doing and nigh impossible to get rid of outside hospital settings. Doctors can catch cancer early and give you medicine to kill it off (which causes a lot of collateral damage since the drugs are geared to kill ''all'' cells that divide rapidly, which includes a lot of cells that you generally need- for example, the ones that produce hair or line your intestines, hence the hair loss and nausea/vomiting that occur as common side effects of chemotherapy), or [[Exterminatus]] cancer via radiation therapy (which might induce mutations in other cells and has similar downsides to chemotherapy) or surgery (which doesn't always remove all of the cancer if parts of it are too small to see and might not be possible to remove if the cancer is so big that it can't be taken out without critically damaging the organ it's attached to in the process). When 4chan says "something" is cancer, this is the type of tumor that particular "something" is compared to. Needless to say, it's also the kind of tumor that's most likely to kill people. 

Sometimes, benign tumors become malignant through a process called tumor progression that causes them to mutate further, and yes this includes those moles, where something tricks your body into grafting a blood vessel or two onto the once-harmless growth to let it grow faster, or the tumor snags another defect that allows it to cut loose and move beyond what was otherwise a relatively confined space. Going back to the 4chan analogy, what was once properly contained might spread out to other threads or boards either because of trolls, newfags, or current events just allowing them to spiral out of control. Conversely, a malignant tumor might generate a mutation that ''neuters'' it instead, either stopping its growth entirely or even sending it into remission. If we were to take the 4chan analogy again, this would mean some undesirable meme ends up stopping dead in its tracks for whatever reason rather than simply withering away, allowing for swift containment.