International Journal of Health Sciences

On the Causes of Cancer: The Argument for Inheritance
Doug Dix

Abstract
Objective: To demonstrate that chance and environmental exposure cannot be principal causes of cancer, and, by elimination, that inheritance must be that principal cause. Methods: Age-specific rates for male cancers of the mouth, esophagus, bronchus, stomach, colon, rectum, pancreas, liver, kidney, and testis from 21 international populations were normalized, and the distribution of risk with age was analyzed. Results: Risk of cancer increases with age at a continuously decreasing rate until some age of peak risk, after which risk declines with age. Neither chance nor exposure can explain this distribution. Inheritance of universal aging genes offers the best explanation. Conclusion: Before the rise in risk, stem cells are quiescent. As they are called into active proliferation, risk rises to a peak, after which it declines with age because stem cells become non-proliferative either from differentiation or senescence.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijhs.v3n3a1