Monday, October 19, 2015

Word of the day: prodrome

The word of the day is prodrome:
  1. a premonitory symptom.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodrome)


"The eradication of H. pylori infection in young men and women reduced the incidence of gastric cancer.  In older patients, in whom chronic gastritis had smoldered for several decades, eradication of the infection had little effect.  In these elderly patients, presumably the chronic inflammation had already progressed to a point that its eradication made no difference.  For cancer prevention to work, Auerbach's march—the prodrome of cancer—had to be halted early."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

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