Definition Of Cancer: What Makes A Monster?

The Oxford English dictionary defines monster as “an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure or a threatening force. This definition gives a broad description of what a monster is, but allows the reader to develop a few more specific qualifications for what it takes to be a monster. From this definition one can determine that a monster is alive, a monster is strange/abnormal, and a monster is a threatening force, which is the most important quality of a monster. Cancer is a disease that affects the body’s ability to get rid of old cells, essentially the old cells never die and the new cells form when they are not needed. This causes tumors to form, cancer tumors are malignant, meaning they invade tissues around the tissues around them, leading to more tumors and can even travel down blood streams and into other parts of the body. The discussion of what a monster is is widely debated, with the

Cancer is a disease that often times is not noticed until very late when it is already terminal. This was the case with Nancy Johnson, she noticed a small lump on her right thigh that refused to go away. This poses the question, how can a cell transmogrify into this awful, malignant tumor whose only goal is to grow and infect the surrounding cells or other parts of the body. Especially in older women the chances of getting cancer as they endure more menstrual cycles, opening the possibility for cells to malfunction and form into cancer cells. Because it is difficult for individuals who have cancer to determine what is wrong with them, as you age they begin to give tests every few years to test and see if you have any cancerous growths. Most tests occur every 5-10 years though leaving time for cancer to grow and develop and go unnoticed(medicinenet.com). The fact that cancer is hard to detect is just another reason it can be considered