title: A Critical Examination of the "Bad Luck" Explanation of Cancer Risk.
abstract: Tomasetti and Vogelstein (1) argue that lifetime cancer risk for particular tissues is mostly determined by the total number of stem cell (SC) divisions within the tissue, whereby most cancers arise due to "bad luck"—mutations occurring during DNA replication. We argue that the poorly substantiated estimations of SC division parameters and assumptions that oversimplify somatic evolution prevent such a conclusion from being drawn.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado.
authors.forename: Andrii I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Rozhok
authors.affiliation: Gene Expression Laboratory, The Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA.
authors.forename: Geoffrey M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Wahl
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado. james.degregori@ucdenver.edu.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: DeGregori
mesh_terms: D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*