We all know cancer to be the big bad killer of man using your own cells as the weapon that has proved impossible to stop. Most of us, if not all of us have heard the story of the great City of Troy and how one man’s lust for a woman and another’s lust for power led to a great battle that culminated in the conquering of a great city, admittedly through the ingenuity of Odysseus ultimately giving us the term “Trojan Horse”. One may wonder how these relate. Well they don’t. I will attempt to use the latter to create a very simplified understanding of the former.
Troy was a mighty civilization where people lived in harmony. But they had laws that governed the societal interactions. Occasionally someone would go against the laws threatening the peace and established order. But these laws would swiftly be enforced to quell any uprising in the ranks. All for the good of Troy. So too, the body’s citizens, the cells, are governed by laws of nature. Cell replication has checkpoints to ensure the right things are being done and the right cells are allowed to replicate at a time. If any cell proves to have been damaged or corrupted, measures are taken to ensure the corruption starts and ends with that cell. All for the good of the body and the life it permits. Not so different from Troy eh?
Now to the faithful battle where Paris’s love for a woman led his great city to war. Now let’s face it, I believe Agamemnon had always been envious of Troy and needed little convincing from his aggrieved brother Menelaus to lead an expedition to get his wife back. Joined by many Greek Heroes, they laid siege to Troy and demanded their stolen prize, Hellen. But the walls of Troy stood firm, limiting it to a few battles and skirmishes. Causing the death of many including Prince Hector, who gave his life to protect Troy. In actual fact, they all gave their lives for the love of one man, Paris. The human body also fights against many adversaries who would wish to take of hold of it and bleed it dry to nourish themselves. Bacteria, viruses and parasites amongst others, all try in vain day in day out. Greek invaders anyone? The various layers of immunity, stand firm though they have a few casualties sometimes. From here I digress to a purely fictional unfolding of events.
Imagine if one day something goes wrong in the mind of one of the warriors of Troy, let’s call him Crispinidas. He sees no reason to defend Troy just because one man took a fancy for the wrong lady. He sees it as a fool’s errand. He sets out to convince his closest allies and recruit more people to this ideology. He soon builds a gathering large enough to be noticed by the long eyesight of the law. But no, he is too ferocious and cunning for the law. He starts making noises here and there, soon followed by uprisings. Soon, he has a large following who help him spread his ideas and recruit more disciples from far and wide. Then he stands up to the law and established order of life in Troy. This is treason and will be met with the full force of Trojan law enforcement. But alas, his rebellion is too determined to be quelled. So a cell gets corrupt and escapes the checkpoints in the cell cycle, allowing it to replicate at an uncontrollable rate. Soon there are enough to breach the vessel walls, get into circulation and move to distant areas, corrupting those cells as well and causing them to replicate unhindered. A phenomenon known as distant metastases.
It gets interesting from here, stay tuned...
References: History.com , Web MD.