Theory in carcinogenesis and epidemiology
- Department of Environmental and Community Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, UMDNJ, Piscataway, USA and Genetics Research Institute, Milan, Italy
- Correspondence to: Dr S Garte, Department of Environmental and Community Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, UMDNJ, 170 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, USA; sjgarte{at}yahoo.com
How application of the principles of natural selection can lead to progress in cancer epidemiology
An argument could be made that despite the unquestionably rapid pace of scientific progress in the biological and biomedical sciences, our actual level of understanding of the mechanisms that operate in living organisms is less profound, less integrated, and less easily communicated than it should be, given the enormity of the data that have been generated. I believe that the reason for this discrepancy between the weight of facts and the breadth of our knowledge stems from a paucity of theoretical effort. In all other fields of science, theoretical and experimental work tend to progress together, each driving the other, and leading to some degree of integrated framework of understanding. The absence of a real theoretical framework for modern biology has severely hampered any attempt to make sense of …
