恶性肿瘤是当前威胁人类健康的严重疾患，因此攻克恶性肿瘤是医学界的重要任务。攻克肿瘤的第一步是认识肿瘤。隐喻是人类普遍的认知方式。本文对医学上大量借用植物生长特征来描述肿瘤生长过程的隐喻现象进行分析。结果发现：在西医学上，肿瘤的生长方式、外形特征、生长速度以及扩散方式都借用了植物隐喻来说明。肿瘤的生长是植物茎叶的生长，植物根系的生长，植物花果的生长，植物四季的生长，特殊植物类型的生长，肿瘤的转移是种子的传播等。这一结果表明西医学中存在肿瘤是植物的隐喻认知，这一隐喻表现了肿瘤旺盛的生命力。

Cancer is a serious threat to human health at present, so it is an important task in the medical field to overcome it. The first step is to recognize cancer. Metaphor is a universal cognitive mode. This paper analyzed the metaphorical phenomenon which the tumor growth process was described as plant growth. The results showed that in modern medicine, growth pattern, tumor shape characteristics, growth velocity and diffusion were using plant metaphors to illustrate. Tumor growth is the growth of stems and leaves of plants, plant root growth, plant fruit growth, plant growth in four seasons, special types of plant growth. The tumor metastasis is the seed spreading of the plant. The result implied that tumor in modern medicine was a metaphorical cognition of plants. This metaphor showed the vitality of tumor.

国家自然科学基金面上项目（81173464）：“观其脉证，知犯何逆，随证治之”的认知心理学研究与动态认知逻辑刻画，负责人：贾春华；国家自然科学基金面上项目（81373770）：具身心智视域下的中医五行概念隐喻的认知心理语言逻辑研究，负责人：贾春华；北京中医药大学科研发展基金项目（2016- ZXFZJJ-008）:认知神经语言学视阈下的基于中医语言的中医思维研究——来自认知神经科学的证据，负责人：贾春华。