The “Culture” of Organs: A Holistic Theory on the Origins of the Cancer Tissue Environment

For over a century, the somatic gene mutation theory of cancer has been a scientific orthodoxy. The recent failures of causal explanations using this theory and the lack of significant progress in addressing the cancer problem medically have led to a new competition of ideas about just what cancer is. This essay presents an alternative view of cancer as a developmental process gone wrong. More specifically, cancer is a breakdown in the autopoietic process of organ maintenance and the multicellular coordination of tissues. Breast cancer is viewed through a systems science perspective as an example of the importance of framing one's theoretical assumptions before making empirical judgments. Finally, a new understanding of the histoarchitecture of the interstitium is presented as a first principle of cancer: a process of cells coming from cells, invading the space between cells.