Cancer: the eighth plague--a suggestion of pathogenesis.

The current treatment of cancer is based on the assumption that this disease is the result of autonomous clonal proliferation of aberrant cells which must be excised, irradiated or selectively poisoned to achieve a cure. The presumption that the malignant cell constitutes the disease is now challenged by a variety of clinical observations and experimental studies. Like the grasshopper, which is transformed into a locust under altered environmental conditions, the cancer cell may be the manifestation of a defect in homeostatic regulation of cellular proliferation. Identification of the specific regulatory defect could allow for a more rational and more effective treatment of cancer in man.