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Comment Re:Replace Idiot with Incompetent (Score 2) 384

"That's how you do polymorphism in C, right?"

You could also have a switch/case approach and call the functions directly.

The thing is, there are some architectures (*cough*8051*cough*) out there where you could, technically, use function pointers, but due to architectural quirks, unless you really, really know what you're doint, you're likely to end up with a horrible buggy mess.

Comment Re:Not very surprising. (Score 4, Interesting) 117

Probably misremembering this, but aren't cancer cells often under higher oxidative stress to begin with, too?

They are more susceptible to oxidative damage since they spend more time in the various stages of cell division (where the DNA is especially vulnerable to oxidative damage) than regular cells (which spend most of their time not actively dividing, where their DNA is less prone to being irreparably damaged by oxidizing compounds).

However, fast-growing cancer sometimes has the nasty habit of out-growing its network of blood vessels, creating areas of the tumor that are oxygen deprived and therefore hard to damage by using ionizing radiation.

Comment Not very surprising. (Score 4, Informative) 117

Oxidizing compounds (like H2O2) are one of the forms of "ammunition" the immune system has. Too many antioxidants in the body will make this weapon less effective.

Also, cancer cells are more susceptive to oxidative damage due to their generally higher cell division rate. This is also why ionizing radiation usually damages cancer cells more than regular cells.

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