"Surface sickness"

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"Surface Sickness", or Magnesiosarcoma, refers to the anomalous cancer that develops in nearly all Regalti of a sufficient age that also lives on the surface of a planet with high enough gravity. It is a genetic condition that starts in the bones, and then quickly spreads through the body. It arose around eight thousand years ago and is related to the rise of the Red-Blue feather pigment mutation (Regalti designated RGf-42) that is present in the female chromosome. Reduction in this condition among Regalti was a direct result of two major factors. First is the Exodus from Planet Collena around 385 years ago, as living off of Collena greatly reduces the chances of this cancer ever appearing. The second is a commonly available supplement that older Regalti take several times a year, made from radioactive Strontium-89.

Names

Magnesiosarcoma. in the broadest sense, sarcoma means that it is a tumor found in connective tissue like bones. Magnesio indicates that it is caused or triggered by magnesium.

Surface Sickness is a slang term used to describe the illness by the Stellar Regalti living in Space. After the Exodus from Collena, the prevalance of bone cancers greatly dropped in Regalti living in space, and usually only developed in those that spent a significant amount of time living on Collena in their youth. After this was discovered, there were a number of ad campaigns that attempted to get more and more Regalti to abandon their homeworld for the possibility of living much longer in space.

Mechanisms

Regalti Bones are generally composed of Calcium and Phosphates, and are coated on the outside with Strontium. The RGf-42 mutation however causes bones to readily accept magnesium into its structure when under a high enough gravity. Magnesium is an unstable element even in the best of conditions, but also a necessary component for life that must exist inside of every single cell for it to function. In higher quantities, it leads to the newly created bone cell to be defective. While the body's immune system can generally take care of the issue, weaker immune systems later in life results in cancer cells growing out of control, possibly spreading throughout the body, which quickly results in death.

Prevalance on Collena

This form of cancer is much more prevalant on Collena than other worlds, even though elemental magnesium occurs in roughly the same ratio. collena is known for having an unsually high concentration of elemental strontium, but there isn't a know mechanism for how the two elements interact in the body that is different from calcium.

Rarity

This form of cancer is possible in every single Regalti that has the RGf-42 mutation, those that have Red-Blue pigmented feathers, which is around 80% of all Regalti. Some ethnicities don't have this mutation, and some ethnicities like the Phevarik are seemingly doomed to get this cancer later in life.

Notable symptoms

Being a bone based cancer, the earliest noticeable symptoms will be broken bones, ligament pains, unexplained bruising on thinner, bonier parts of the body. The cancer can also be detected if a Regalti's skin starts to appear more yellow when in a relaxed state, which is a color their skin normally cannot change into (They skip straight from red/orange to green normally when changing color).

Treatment

In general, if caught in early screening, a supplement of calcium and radioactive strontium is prescribed. If the Cancer is found to have spread, targeted radiation treatments are necessary. If the cancer has metastasized, then operations are necessary to remove anomalous bone growths, though at this point, no amount of technology is going to save the biological body, which now has a much more limited lifespan. Transferrence into an electronic form of life is recommended at this point, though, many Regalti are opposed to having their minds uploaded, and prefer to wait for their deaths naturally.

Death Rates

Surface Sickness is still the leading cause of death on Collena. In Pre-Modern times, as many as 40% of all Regalti that died at age 40 or older was suspected to be because of this illness. Even in post-Modern times going into the Space Age, with supplements and regular screenings on everyone older than 30, as many as 20% of all Regalti deaths on Collena are still caused by this. It causes the average biological life expectancy of a Regalti on Collena to be under 100 years, while in Space and on other worlds, it can be as high as 150 to 200 years.

On the moon Sephar, fewer than 5% of all deaths are caused by Surface Sickness. In Space, fewer than 0.01% of all deaths are caused by Surface sickness. The most common causes of death for Regalti outside Collena are cardiovascular in nature.

Type

Genetic

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Common