Coordinated Growth of Body Parts and Cancer

Abstract

The application of the principle of coordinated growth to the interpretation of studies of carcinogenesis is discussed. It is pointed out that since a cancer may be considered as a growing part of its host it should be influenced by factors that affect the over-all growth of the host. This lends a degree of uncertainty to the interpretation of cancer studies in which either the time-to-appearance of cancer or the incidence of cancer in a population of animals, at a given time, is used as an index of carcinogenicity, therapeutic action on cancer, the action of endocrines, etc.