Chapter 235

Translator: Dreamscribe

Johns Hopkins Cancer Center, main lecture hall.

Hundreds of doctors and researchers were watching Seo-ha with bated breath.

Seo-ha turned back to the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk.

Tap, tap-tap.

Every time he moved the chalk, a strange silence settled over the lecture hall. What appeared on the blackboard was a combination of English letters and numbers the doctors had seen all their lives, but the way they were arranged belonged to neither biology nor medicine.

Faces filled with confusion.

Seo-ha looked around at them and slowly began to speak.

“My team and I encountered an enormous wall while working with medicine here. It stemmed from a disconnect that, as a mathematician, I simply couldn’t tolerate. There is far too much subjectivity involved in the way modern medicine records information.”

At his words, several doctors flinched and straightened in their seats.

“Expressions such as ‘the patient experiences severe pain’, ‘the cells rapidly infiltrate’, and ‘the prognosis is poor’ are descriptions based on doctors’ subjective experiences. And when language like this accumulates as data, it ultimately becomes undecipherable noise.”

The atmosphere in the lecture hall grew heavy. The more experience the medical researchers had battling with data throughout their careers, the more painfully aware they were of the limitation Seo-ha had pointed out.

“Human language is finite. But the interactions between cells are nearly infinite. Perhaps the distortion and loss of information that occur in the process of describing those interactions were inevitable.”

Several doctors nodded in agreement.

How could they not have known?

They had simply done their best despite being painfully aware of the limitations.

“But I believe that is a limitation of the language we possess, not a limitation of medicine itself.”

Murmur, murmur.

The doctors began to stir.

He was pointing out that modern medicine, something they had devoted their entire lives to, was being held back by an inadequate language.

“Mathematicians are familiar with situations like this.”

Seo-ha set down the chalk and addressed the audience.

“Mathematicians in the nineteenth century faced the same problem you do. They had to deal with infinity, but the language of the time couldn’t express it. So they created a new language.”

Tap.

Cantor’s Cardinal Number symbol, ℵ₀.

“What changed because of this? In the past, humanity could only describe the concept of infinity as ‘endlessly large’. But once this symbol was created, we became able to compare infinities, perform operations on them, and even classify them.”

“Ah!”

“So that’s....”

Exclamations erupted throughout the audience. At last, they were beginning to grasp what Seo-ha was trying to accomplish.

“What I intend to create is the same.”

Click-

When Seo-ha pressed a button, characters appeared on the main lecture hall’s display.

The three-dimensional binding structures of proteins expressed through formulas and symbols, receptor binding affinity, the mobility of substances across cell membranes, and even the physical pressure exerted by the Tumor Microenvironment.

Biological phenomena that the medical community had previously lumped together into broad descriptions had been converted into perfectly standardized equations.

The doctors in the lecture hall widened their eyes and tried to read them, but unfortunately, they couldn’t understand a thing.

Seo-ha’s gaze turned toward the audience.

His eyes were gentle and harmless. Yet within them was an intellect capable of overwhelming even the world’s foremost authorities on Oncology in an instant.

Seo-ha slowly opened his mouth.

“Kurt Gödel converted complex logical propositions into numbers. I borrowed that concept and used it to construct the biological signals of the human body and the mutation mechanisms of cancer cells.”

A massive multidimensional matrix in which every biological process was intertwined like a spiderweb. The sheer unfamiliarity of it cast a heavy silence over the room.

“I will presumptuously call this the ‘Life Matrix’.”

“....”

“....”

The world’s greatest medical scholars collectively blinked at the blackboard. What showed on their faces was neither awe nor admiration. They looked utterly lost, like children who had lost their way in the middle of a city.

Seo-ha was bewildered.

‘Why don’t they understand this?’

The Life Matrix was not merely a system that replaced substances or phenomena with symbols, as chemical formulas did.

What it contained was an overwhelming order. It was a set of laws established so that the biological processes and metabolic activities of the human body related to Pancreatic Cancer could be combined and decomposed within a single logical structure.

But that was fine.

If he explained it slowly, everyone would soon recognize the beauty of this language.

In that case, what he needed now was....

“I’ll set the complicated equations aside for the moment.”

Beep-

Data from a Pancreatic Cancer patient appeared on the screen.

Patient A.

Stage II at diagnosis, successful surgery, chemotherapy administered, but the cancer recurred eleven months later and the patient died. It was the kind of familiar case any oncologist would have encountered.

Patient B.

The same cancer, the same age and sex. Even the surgeon had been the same.

But he had been declared cured and was still alive seven years later.

“Why did their outcomes differ?”

The lecture hall fell silent.

The doctors had seen countless patients like these. But they had no way to explain the difference.

In the end, all they could say was that the patient had simply been unlucky.

Bowen, UPenn’s distinguished professor of immunology, shot to his feet and shouted.

“Y-You’re saying you can explain why those two cases had different outcomes?”

Seo-ha nodded.

“That’s right.”

At his gesture, the genetic data of the two patients overlapped on the screen.

Astonishingly, the values were almost identical.

Murmur, murmur.

The audience stirred.

“There’s barely any difference.”

“That was the problem. No matter what tests we ran, we couldn’t identify any critical cause.”

“What in the world did he see in there?”

Seo-ha grinned and pointed to one spot.

It was the stromal density of the fibrous tissue surrounding the cancer.

“The difference is here. Patient A had a fibrosis rate of 71 percent, while Patient B had 64 percent.”

Open disappointment appeared on the doctors’ faces.

“You must not be very familiar with clinical practice. Differences of that magnitude are common.”

“Exactly. That alone can’t explain such a dramatic difference in prognosis between surviving seven years and dying after recurrence. The opposite outcome is common too.”

That was the problem.

Fibrosis was undoubtedly a meaningful variable, but there were plenty of cases in which patients with lower values still died.

“Take a look at this.”

Tap, tap-tap.

The symbols he had shown them at the beginning.

Seo-ha began using them to write an equation across the blackboard.

Professor Ryan stared at the board as though entranced.

‘Fibrosis? Vascular density, and that must be the oxygen partial pressure inside the tissue. Glucose metabolic rate, immune cell infiltration, cytokines....’

Could it be?

Seo-ha’s hand moved lightly.

His chalk glided across the board as though he were writing a musical score. Every symbol Seo-ha had substituted could be decomposed. Break down each symbol, split it apart, and what remained at the very end was the final Logical Prime.

A prime representing the explosive rate of glucose metabolism in cancer cells was linked in a multiplicative structure with T Cell signal blockade. It then combined with other equations to form an increasingly complex structure.

One symbol connected to another.

Lines appeared, equations branched outward, and layers of parentheses nested within one another.

“....”

At some point, the doctors realized that what they were seeing contained something beyond mere equations.

The expressions intertwined like a living neural network.

Seo-ha glanced at the audience. Most of them still looked doubtful, but if he tried a little harder, he should be able to make them understand.

‘It’s fine. If Seo-eun were a doctor, she’d be able to understand this much.’

scratch scratch.

Cell to cell, tissue to tissue.

Tens of millions of interactions were compressed into symbols and numbers. And from within them, Seo-ha began calculating the answer.

“Ah!”

“He’s taking it that far?”

Theo pressed a hand to his forehead and gave Sri a look, prompting Sri to operate the display.

In an instant, real-time annotations appeared beside the equations written on the blackboard. They had prepared them in advance just in case, and it was a tremendous relief that they had.

What Seo-ha’s equations meant.

A set of parentheses opened on the screen, and another equation appeared inside it. Dozens of terms lay within. Seo-ha was calculating all of them mentally, but the way he presented the process was far too unforgiving for anyone trying to follow along.

The calculation ended.

It was a calculation composed entirely of symbols and equations they had never seen before. Even with the explanations on the screen, scholars renowned for their intelligence could barely keep up.

At last, the structure emerged.

A single line of an equation.

Click.

When Sri clicked the mouse, the underlying structure that formed it was revealed.

It looked as though an enormous tree had been ripped out by its roots and turned upside down.

“That’s....”

“A decomposition equation?”

“No.”

Ryan spoke in a trembling voice.

“It’s a Causal Network.”

The cancer cells consumed enormous amounts of glucose. As a result, a localized hypoxic environment formed within the tumor, which activated the HIF Pathway. The activated HIF promoted Angiogenesis, but the newly formed blood vessels were not nearly as orderly as those in normal tissue.

The abnormally proliferated vascular network altered the pressure within the Tumor Microenvironment, and the increased pressure prevented T Cells from infiltrating the tumor. The T Cells that failed to infiltrate could not eliminate enough cancer cells, which in turn accelerated Immune Evasion.

In the end, a single metabolic change was amplified through a chain reaction, restructuring the entire tumor environment in a way that favored the cancer cells.

‘He can determine the causal relationships behind all these complex metabolic processes through equations?’

And then-

Tap, tap-tap.

Seo-ha wrote down the final conclusion.

The single most important factor that had determined whether Patient A or B lived or died.

“Here.”

Seo-ha lightly tapped the relevant portion with the tip of his chalk.

At the signal, Sri zoomed in on the display. Every doctor’s gaze converged on the same spot.

「Degree of fibrosis 64%」

The difference between the two patients was only 7 percent.

But that small difference had separated life from death. Among thousands of cellular interactions, it was a tiny yet enormous difference that had changed the direction of every one of them.

“My God!”

Ryan let out an astonished cry.

There were ways to alleviate fibrosis. If Patient A had received the appropriate treatment, could he have survived? Probably not. There would have been no way to predict what other chain reaction the intervention might trigger.

But the words that came out of Seo-ha’s mouth were completely different.

“We can also calculate a way to save Patient A.”

Several doctors shot to their feet and shouted.

“Really?”

“Preventing fibrosis requires extremely complicated treatment. How could you possibly know what side effects it might cause?”

Seo-ha shook his head.

“Reducing the degree of fibrosis isn’t the only option.”

Tap.

Seo-ha pointed to one location in the Causal Network.

“We can block HIF activation.”

Another location.

“We can reduce Interstitial Pressure.”

Yet another.

“We can restore T Cell mobility.”

His hand swept across the entire Causal Network.

“The final value that determined Patient A’s prognosis is an equation produced by multiplying all these factors together. So if we can correct even one of them and break the chain, the growth of the cancer cells will stop.”

What in the world were they hearing?

Silence followed.

Only then did Ryan understand what Seo-ha had meant at the beginning.

“The Life Matrix.”

Pancreatic Cancer, a disease modern medicine had only been able to guess at as though feeling the leg, trunk, and ears of a massive elephant in the darkness.

The matrix Seo-ha had presented was an enormous mirror that revealed the elephant’s entire body at a glance. No, it showed the complete dynamic structure through which the creature breathed and moved.

“My God....”

“That’s impossible. If that’s really possible....”

Silence filled the hall.

But this silence was different from before. Everyone’s eyes darted about as their minds raced furiously. And finally, Bowen, the immunologist who had realized something, rose from his seat.

His eyes were fixed on one point in the Causal Network.

“The section inhibiting T Cell infiltration.”

With a trembling hand, he pointed at the screen.

“For decades, we haven’t understood why CAR-T Therapy doesn’t work against Pancreatic Cancer. Are you saying this alone is the reason?”

When viewed through Seo-ha’s equation, it was obvious.

Increased Interstitial Pressure and receptor paralysis in T Cells. Within the structural equation, the two variables were bound together as a single causal unit.

But they had only ever tried to address one side of it, so of course it had never worked.

“That’s right.”

Seo-ha nodded.

As though his legs had given out, Bowen collapsed back into his chair.

Sounds of agitation spread throughout the lecture hall. Among them, one doctor bravely raised his hand and stood up.

“Seo-ha, if we study this too, will we be able to calculate things like that ourselves?”

Seo-ha thought for a moment, then scratched his head.

Because he didn’t think Seo-eun, who was currently in middle school, could quite manage it yet.

*****

If you enjoy this novel, please review and rate it at Novelupdates. Thanks! 😊

To receive the latest update notifications or report mistakes, join our Discord server linked below.