~apparent~ Link to Baker paper mentioned in the NPR story is here (pubmed links to actual paper) : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25528755 http://www.ncbi.

~apparent~ Link to Baker paper mentioned in the NPR story is here (pubmed links to actual paper) : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25528755 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25528755 (Journal of the National Cancer Institute) From the 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." ... Thinking in terms of TOFT can spur new lines of research; examples are given related to the early detection of cancer. From the discussion : The premises of TOFT are that carcinogenesis represents a problem of tissue organization, comparable to organogenesis, and that proliferation is the default state of all cells (9,10). Three corollaries of TOFT are: 1) mutations are not needed for carcinogenesis; 2) cancer can arise in tissue where carcinogen has not been applied; and 3) genetic instability is a byproduct of carcinogenesis.