1: Med Hypotheses. 1982 Jan;8(1):1-10. |
The incubation time of cancer.
Zajicek G.
Incubation times of cancers whose initiation can be estimated relatively,
precisely are distributed log-normally. This distribution is associated with a
biphasic risk function, initially climbing to decline again after a certain
period. A declining risk of contracting cancer implies further that the
patient's chances of withstanding cancer improve with time. A similar declining
risk function was also observed in age specific cancer incidence curves. At the
age of 30 years they all rise exponentially to level off at old age. In some
cancers e.g. bronchial or female genital, the curves even decline. The risk
functions associated with them follow a similar course. Such may not be the
case in some chronic systemic diseases, e.g. arteriosclerosis, in which the
risk function never declines so that the patient's resistance to this disease
is smaller than that observed in cancer. The declining risk proceeds even
during the clinical phase of cancer as evident from two sources o data 1. Age
specific cancer mortality curves exhibit the same pattern associated with a
biphasic risk function and, 2. survival curves of cancer patients inhibit a
declining risk function. The mounting resistance with time observed in cancer
is observable in any disease, infectious as well chronic systemic.
PMID: 7062857 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]