William Li

Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis is what happens when the body grows new blood vessels — it's really a thing, look it up in your freshman physiology text. The woo comes in when Li argues that "angiogenesis therapy" promotes the growth of new blood vessels in order to "to replenish the blood supply to chronic wounds to speed healing, and [prevent] unnecessary amputations."[1]

In reality, angiogenesis can make you worse if you have metastatic (malignant) cancer. When a tumor metastasizes in a new area of the body, it starts out tiny, but sends out signals telling the surrounding tissue to grow new blood vessels so that it can feed. Without angiogenesis, the new tumor can't grow bigger than a pin head. In fact, one cancer management therapy that's under serious study is the use of angiogenesis inhibitors such as thalidomide to prevent new blood vessels from forming.[2]

gollark: What if I don't want to?
gollark: They just don't make sense. Do they go up or down or sideways? What if I put in a really, really big number - can it reach the thing it asymptotically tends towards *then*? What if I want it to output a different value? Are bees holomorphic?
gollark: However, I don't know how asymptotes work, so I'm just going for slightly increasing it each time.
gollark: It must asymptotically approach 6.1 as it approaches completion.
gollark: 6.00000000003.

References
  1. "Understanding Angiogenesis."
  2. The National Cancer Institute, fact sheet on angiogenesis inhibitors
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