We all have cancer

I regret having to be the one to tell you this, but if you’re over 50 you probably have cancer.

This blurb is from an article published last month in The New York Times:

Cancer cells and precancerous cells are so common that nearly everyone by middle age or old age is riddled with them, said Thea Tlsty, a professor of pathology at the University of California, San Francisco. That was discovered in autopsy studies of people who died of other causes, with no idea that they had cancer cells or precancerous cells. They did not have large tumors or symptoms of cancer. “The really interesting question,” Dr. Tlsty said, “is not so much why do we get cancer as why don’t we get cancer?”

Now there’s an existential question to ponder the next time you pour yourself a second glass of wine.