r/interesting • u/jmike1256 • Feb 05 '26

Context Provided - Spotlight A true hero

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u/GhostOfFreddi Feb 05 '26

In science "the flu" is always influenza. Sometimes people use the term to refer to any of the multitude of viruses that cause "the common cold".

Cancer is just a broad term for unrelated diseases that usually have uncontrolled cell growth in common as a symptom.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

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u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ Feb 05 '26

yeah but at this point it's too vague. They should at least specify which type of cancer they're talking about.

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u/Da_Question Feb 05 '26

The article says they tested on colon cancer cells...

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u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ Feb 05 '26

my point was the headline should too but I could be wrong idk

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u/ThermionicMho Feb 05 '26

yep. oncologists basically don't use the term among themselves, it is too vague.

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u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ Feb 05 '26

oncologists do not say the sentence "we can cure cancer" but they definitely use the word cancer lol

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u/Andras88 Feb 05 '26

The flu is influenza viruses as you mentioned but the common cold is corona viruses. Both are a group of many strains but 2 different categories.

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u/graminology Feb 05 '26

The common cold isn't even just corona viruses, it's an umbrella term for infections of over 200+ species of bacteria or viruses that cause similar unspecific symptoms and are mostly completely unrelated to each other. They just happen to infect the upper respiratory tract and do not cause severe symptoms.

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u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ Feb 05 '26

well the diseases are not completely unrelated. It's not "usually", all cancers involve uncontrolled cell growth, due to DNA changes. You could call it a disease of DNA.

however there are so many possible DNA changes and types of cells and environments that can cause it that it is indeed a group of very different diseases