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Comment
. 2017 May 16;12(5):e0175535.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175535. eCollection 2017.

On the slope of the regression between stem cell divisions and cancer risk, and the lack of correlation between stem cell divisions and environmental factors-associated cancer risk

Cristian Tomasetti  1   2 , Bert Vogelstein  3
Affiliations
Comment

On the slope of the regression between stem cell divisions and cancer risk, and the lack of correlation between stem cell divisions and environmental factors-associated cancer risk

Cristian Tomasetti et al. PLoS One. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: We are the disputed authors of the paper: Tomasetti C, Vogelstein B. Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions. Science 2015, 347(6217):78-81.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Dependence of the slope on the degree of heterogeneity in the number of required driver genes across tissues.
(A) Regression line (red), for predicted cancer risk if it is assumed that all cancer types require exactly the same number of driver gene mutations, n, as assumed by Little et al. [1]. The slope of the regression line is 0.5. (B) Regression line (red), for predicted cancer risk if it is assumed that different cancer types require different numbers n of driver gene mutations (two in bone, ovarian, thyroid, gallbladder, brain, and lung cancer, and three drivers in all other cancer types.) To make the data points homogeneous in n, in order to regress on them, their risk was modified according to an Armitage and Doll model, for simplicity, with a mutation rate u = 5x10-7 per gene per cell division. All other variables were identical to those in A. The slope of the regression line is 1.8.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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References

    1. Little MP, Hendry JH, Puskin JS. Lack of Correlation between Stem-Cell Proliferation and Radiation- or Smoking-Associated Cancer Risk. PloS one. 2016;11(3):e0150335 10.1371/journal.pone.0150335 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tomasetti C, Vogelstein B. Cancer etiology. Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions. Science. 2015;347(6217):78–81. - PMC - PubMed
    1. http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2015/jan/02/bad-luck-ba....
    1. Armitage P, Doll R. The age distribution of cancer and a multi-stage theory of carcinogenesis. British journal of cancer. 1954;8(1):1–12. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tomasetti C, Marchionni L, Nowak MA, Parmigiani G, Vogelstein B. Only three driver gene mutations are required for the development of lung and colorectal cancers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2015;112(1):118–23. 10.1073/pnas.1421839112 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

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