Cancer cells before and after metastasis were worlds apart.
At first, cancer cells attached themselves to organs and became tumors, drawing energy from the human body, but they were not all that threatening. Modern medicine had ways to treat them. Sometimes, the body's own immune system would even destroy newly formed cancer cells.
The ones that could truly be called terminal were cancer cells after metastasis.
Cancer cells kept multiplying and growing on an organ. Once they reached a certain size, in order to obtain more nutrients, they had to move out.
However, cancer cells encountered many difficulties during metastasis. First, they had to undergo dozens of mutations, overcoming intercellular adhesion in the process to break free, and changing shape to pass through dense connective tissue.
After escaping successfully, the cancer cells would enter the bloodstream through capillaries, where they might also be attacked by white blood cells.
Even if they entered a new organ through the blood vessels, they might die because they could not adapt to the new environment.
Some cells died on the spot, some died after dividing several times, and others remained dormant. The survival rate was only one in hundreds of millions.
But cancer cells would keep trying, ultimately relying on their tenacious reproductive ability and powerful adaptability to gain a firm foothold in other organ tissues.
Their plunder of the body's nutrients was unrestrained; the damage they caused to organs knew no end.
Lawless cancer cells rapidly spread and metastasized to other internal organs, spreading irresistibly like a breached dam, and ultimately killed the human body.
This was actually like civilization. When it was trapped in one place, it was easy to wipe out.
But once it rushed toward the sea of stars, spread everywhere, and tenaciously adapted to all kinds of environments, it