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Oncogene Addiction
Oncogene Addiction: reliance of cancer cells on multiple genetic alterations to grow and proliferate and wreak continual biologic havoc.
Risible term, LOL
Are there twelve steps for tumors?
If so, I suppose I'd be
The master of ceremonies
The facilitator at the center of the circle
Could we organize
Semi-anonymous handwringing confessionals
For cancer cells and the cytokines
They elaborate?
Could we wrest abject admissions
Of molecular malfeasance
From these invasive human monstrosities
On a first-name only basis?
Promises of repentance and repair?
While they compete with their fellow
Dysmorphic travelers in a lethal game
Of one-ups-manship,
Their puckered, immortal
Membranes clinging one to another
Manipulating all those near them
Like any other addict
Are cancer cells like their human prey?
If only remissions could be fueled
By caffeine, nicotine,
Shame;
Relapse, we know
Is always one misstep
Around the corner,
We live one mutational temptation
From the brink
And like a counselor
I suppose I'll always be
Staging interventions
Often futile
Ranting, rabbinicating
Rationalizing;
Riveted
By the riddle
Posed every time
I interrogate
The remorseless
Ripening mass
Rampaging through
The bodies of benighted
Souls who entrust their precious cargo
To my willing hands.
Corey J. Langer, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of Thoracic Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine.
A former President of Delaware Valley Poets, a grassroots group based in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, that conducts monthly workshops and hosts monthly readings, he continues to spearhead its monthly readings, which are now done in tandem with US 1 Worksheets at the Princeton Public Library.
His poetry has been widely published, including in Brooklines, A Muddy River Anthology, A Different Latitude, Thatchwork, Annals of Internal Medicine, Edison Literary Review, Quick and Dirty Poets, Identity Theory, U.S. 1, and U.S. 1 Worksheets.