"Why We Should Study Cancer Like We Study Ecosystems."

Oncology ≈ ecology.

[R]ather than labeling cancer as a group of mutated cells, as the thinking goes, we should see cancer as a disruption in the balance of a complex microenvironment in the human body. Like a damaging invasive beetle eating its way through forests in Colorado, a novel disease breaking out in populations of wild birds, or loggers mowing down parts of the Amazon rainforest, cancer throws a monkey wrench into an otherwise placid, balanced system.

And once the monkeys get wrenches your entire metaphorest goes into collapse.