ArticleJournal of the National Cancer Institute2015
A cancer theory kerfuffle can lead to new lines of research.
Article in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 108 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Mutation or not, what directly establishes a neoplastic state, namely cellular immortality and autonomy, still remains unknown and should be prioritized in our research.Journal of Cancer · 2022Review
- The cancer puzzle: Welcome to organicism.Progress in biophysics and molecular biology · 2021Article
- Can the Mitochondrial Metabolic Theory Explain Better the Origin and Management of Cancer than Can the Somatic Mutation Theory?Metabolites · 2021Article
- Cell fusion in cancer hallmarks: Current research status and future indications.Oncology letters · 2021Review
- A bioelectric model of carcinogenesis, including propagation of cell membrane depolarization and reversal therapies.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Study on attractors during organism evolution.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Modeling the mean time to interval cancer after negative results of periodic cancer screening.Statistics in medicine · 2021Article
- On the Origin of ATP Synthesis in Cancer.iScience · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The standard viewpoint that cancer is a genetic disease is often stated as a fact rather than a theory. By not acknowledging that it is a theory, namely the Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT), researchers are limiting their progress. An attractive alternative to SMT is the tissue organization field theory (TOFT), which is summarized as "development gone awry." To initiate a kerfuffle, I discuss the interpretation of various results under both TOFT and SMT, including recurrent mutations, hereditary cancers, induction of tumors in transgenic experiments, remission of tumors following the inhibition of enzymes activated by mutated genes, nongenotoxic carcinogens, denervation experiments, foreign-body carcinogenesis, transplantation experiments, and tumors with zero mutations. Thinking in terms of TOFT can spur new lines of research; examples are given related to the early detection of cancer.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.