The overlooked role of metascientific principles in cancer research

Abstract This paper addresses the complexities involved in conceptualizing the relationship between theories that aim to account for the same putative phenomenon. More specifically, I discuss how the relationship between two of the most prominent theories in current cancer research has been conceptualized: The Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT) and the Tissue Organization Field Theory (TOFT). Two factions have emerged in the debate. The first conceptualizes them as competing paradigms, the second as integrable perspectives. The central hypothesis of the manuscript is that both misrepresent the relationship between SMT and TOFT and their contribution to advancing our understanding of cancer. This stems from an erroneous consideration of the role of metascientific principles—ontological, epistemological, and methodological—in scaffolding scientific practices, leading to a reification of these theories. I will contend that this reification required the participation of a fourth metascientific principle often overlooked: a representationalist metasemantic one. I will conclude by offering a two-step strategy to alleviate the tensions between the two cancer theories.