Is carcinogenesis fundamentally adversarial-confrontational or physiologic-adaptive?
The dominant dogma concerning the essential cellular changes during preneoplasia and precancer considers these as abnormal or foreign that evoke a basic "host-parasite" response. An alternative view of how cancer develops, here briefly outlined, views the early and intermediate cellular changes as essentially physiologic and adaptive. This different concept introduces clonal adaptation as a basic response to many genotoxic carcinogenic stimuli including chemicals, radiations, and some viruses. The evidence in support of this new view of the carcinogenic process is summarized.
Farber
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Department of Pathology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*