Summary

Bryson begins Chapter 21 by explaining that although cancer is probably the most feared disease today, it is also a recent fear. In the past, people did not often live long enough to get cancer, but today rates are increasing. Today 40 percent of people will get cancer at some point. Cancer is an internal malady, caused by cells in the body turning on us. Cancer cells have six attributes that Bryson lists: dividing without limit, grow without direction or outside influence, tricking the body into giving them a blood supply, disregarding any signals to stop growing, not succumbing to programmed cell death and they metastasize and spread to other parts of the body (336-337). The body often fails to detect cancer cells because they appear as normal. Because of this, they can multiply for decades before a doctor or...