ArticlePLoS biology2020
Over a century of cancer research: Inconvenient truths and promising leads.
Article in PLoS biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
32 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
- Hypoxic adaptation theory of cancer.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- In utero exposure to estrogenic bisphenol analogues increases mammary tissue stiffness.Reproductive toxicology (Elmsford, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Evolutionary unpredictability in cancer model systems.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Beyond cancer treatment: dermo-aesthetic and other wellness recommendations for breast cancer patients.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025Review
- The end of the genetic paradigm of cancer.PLoS biology · 2025Review
- Cancer research and the mainstream of biology.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Marine-derived fungi from the genusMycology · 2025Review
- The "Culture" of Organs: A Holistic Theory on the Origins of the Cancer Tissue Environment.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Tumor Cell Communications as Promising Supramolecular Targets for Cancer Chemotherapy: A Possible Strategy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Initiation of Cancer: The Journey From Mutations in Somatic Cells to Epigenetic Changes in Tissue-resident VSELs.Stem cell reviews and reports · 2024Review
- Modeling Mammary Organogenesis from Biological First Principles: A Systems Biology Approach.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Pareto task inference analysis reveals cellular trade-offs in diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma transcriptomic data.Frontiers in systems biology · 2024Article
- A Law of Redundancy Compounds the Problem of Cancer and Precision Medicine.Journal of molecular evolution · 2023Article
- Potential immunosuppressive clonal hematopoietic mutations in tumor infiltrating immune cells in breast invasive carcinoma.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Cellular barcoding tracks heterogeneous clones through selective pressures and phenotypic transitions.Trends in cancer · 2023Review
- Biochemistry-Not Oncogenes-May Demystify and Defeat Cancer.Oncology and therapy · 2023Review
- The Multifaceted Role of Connexins in Tumor Microenvironment Initiation and Maintenance.Biology · 2023Review
- Can cancer go green? It's up to us.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
- The Nervous System as a Regulator of Cancer Hallmarks: Insights into Therapeutic Implications.Cancers · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite over a century of intensive efforts, the great gains promised by the War on Cancer nearly 50 years ago have not materialized. Since 1999, we have analyzed the lack of progress in explaining and "curing" cancer by examining the merits of the premises that determine how cancer is understood and treated. Our ongoing critical analyses have aimed at clarifying the sources of misunderstandings at the root of the cancer puzzle while providing a plausible and comprehensive biomedical perspective as well as a new theory of carcinogenesis that is compatible with evolutionary theory. In this essay, we explain how this new theory, the tissue organization field theory (TOFT), can help chart a path to progress for cancer researchers by explaining features of cancer that remain unexplainable from the perspective of the still hegemonic somatic mutation theory (SMT) and its variants. Of equal significance, the premises underlying the TOFT offer new perspectives on basic biological phenomena.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.