ArticleScience (New York, N.Y.)2015
Cancer etiology. Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions.
Article in Science (New York, N.Y.), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 936 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
936 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systemic Alterations of Cancer Cells and Their Boost by Polyploidization: Unicellular Attractor (UCA) Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- The "Selfish Cell": The Central Role of Metabolism in Relaying Environmental Stimuli and Controlling Cellular Function.Biology · 2026Review
- Comprehensive Genomic Analysis of Normal and Cancer Cells Elucidates the Elevated Mutational Burden in Cancer.Cancer research · 2026Article
- Estimating the carcinogenesis timelines in early-onset versus late-onset cancers and changes across birth cohorts.Science advances · 2026Article
- Rethinking the origins and functions of adaptive immunity.Trends in immunology · 2026Review
- Integrating germline and tumor sequencing to improve hereditary cancer diagnosis and care.European journal of human genetics : EJHG · 2026Review
- Ionizing Radiation and Ultraviolet Light Irradiation-Associated DNA Damage Increasing Genomic Instability Risk.Cancer science · 2026Review
- CD8 T lymphocytes deploy embryonic cell cycle control mechanisms for rapid cell proliferation.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Stromal BMP signalling maintains stem cell genome integrity and prevents gastric cancer initiation.Cell death & disease · 2026Article
- K-Ras controls asymmetric cell divisions from the primary cilium.Cell death & disease · 2026Article
- Article
- Population-level cancer trends among solid organ transplant recipients in the United States during 1995-2021.American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons · 2026Article
- Why are Some Tissues More Vulnerable? Revisiting Tissue Specificity in Hereditary Cancer Syndromes.Molecular diagnosis & therapy · 2026Review
- Inherent tissue homeostasis of the juvenile metaphysis provides a foundation for osteosarcoma development.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Individualised progesterone receptor modulator prevention strategies for triple-negative breast cancer in BRCA1 pathogenic variant carriers.NPJ breast cancer · 2026Review
- Integrated Clinicogenomic Risk Modeling for Metachronous Second Primary Cancers.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- An investigative network analysis mapping global cancer epidemiology.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2026Article
- Cell-to-cell variability and gain of methylation at polycomb CpG islands as a hallmark of aging.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Distinct epigenetic alterations and accelerated mitotic aging define second primary breast cancers.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Spatial transcriptomics defines IM-crypt as a premalignant niche with bidirectional divergence in early gastric carcinogenesis.Communications biology · 2026Article
876 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Some tissue types give rise to human cancers millions of times more often than other tissue types. Although this has been recognized for more than a century, it has never been explained. Here, we show that the lifetime risk of cancers of many different types is strongly correlated (0.81) with the total number of divisions of the normal self-renewing cells maintaining that tissue's homeostasis. These results suggest that only a third of the variation in cancer risk among tissues is attributable to environmental factors or inherited predispositions. The majority is due to "bad luck," that is, random mutations arising during DNA replication in normal, noncancerous stem cells. This is important not only for understanding the disease but also for designing strategies to limit the mortality it causes.
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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.