Mutation Constellation

I had to unlearn a few things about biomarkers. I was thinking too literally that X marks the spot (in the DNA). What gives us information about the cancer mutation are pathways and patterns (I’m calling them constellations tonight).

It’s fascinating to have followed my line of questions down to the Origin, and HPV vs Inflammation as the driver of the virus or the damage-driven cause of the mutation, check out my new graphic above.

My next question (after a few hours of sleep) will be to see if HPV or non-HPV show up in my genome sequence. If we see chronic inflammation then the question becomes ‘could this have been caused by a traumatic knee replacement that followed a long period of chronic knee pain.’

I started noticing something painful and almost like a tiny stone or a shard of bone(3mm) in my penis. This is when I contacted my PCP at Sharp Healthcare. This was after my knee surgery. And I was wondering if I contracted a virus or something the day of the surgery at Grossmont Hospital. My labs all went crazy after my surgery, making another possible suspicious connection to Sharp. I may never find the direct link. But the genomic trail back to the same time period is interesting, and might be a clever writing prompt for a story (or animation).

So, is the HPV vaccination important? Judge that for yourself.

We are getting down to the molecular level here, and we may find a “mutation signature” that suggests or predicts responsiveness to immunotherapy. Immuno is not a panacea. The one I’m thinking may be used—it has entire Facebook groups of people that claim they or loved ones were seriously injured by it. A bit scary.