Report for: Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions

Title	Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions
Published in	Science, January 2015
DOI	10.1126/science.1260825
Pubmed ID	25554788
Authors	C. Tomasetti, B. Vogelstein
Abstract	Some tissue types give rise to human cancers millions of times more often than other tissue types. Although this has been recognized for more than a century, it has never been explained. Here, we show that the lifetime risk of cancers of many different types is strongly correlated (0.81) with the total number of divisions of the normal self-renewing cells maintaining that tissue's homeostasis. These results suggest that only a third of the variation in cancer risk among tissues is attributable to environmental factors or inherited predispositions. The majority is due to "bad luck," that is, random mutations arising during DNA replication in normal, noncancerous stem cells. This is important not only for understanding the disease but also for designing strategies to limit the mortality it causes.

View on publisher site Alert me about new mentions

Twitter Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 1,261 tweeters who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.

Geographical breakdown

Country	Count	As %
United States	249	20%
Japan	124	10%
United Kingdom	71	6%
Spain	52	4%
Canada	33	3%
Netherlands	25	2%
France	19	2%
Australia	16	1%
Germany	14	1%
Other	147	12%
Unknown	511	41%

Demographic breakdown

Type	Count	As %
Members of the public	911	72%
Scientists	241	19%
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals)	76	6%
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors)	33	3%

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 2,150 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country	Count	As %
United States	48	2%
Germany	24	1%
United Kingdom	23	1%
France	10	<1%
Switzerland	6	<1%
Italy	6	<1%
Canada	5	<1%
Spain	5	<1%
Denmark	5	<1%
Other	55	3%
Unknown	1963	91%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status	Count	As %
Researcher	551	26%
Student > Ph. D. Student	546	25%
Student > Bachelor	211	10%
Student > Master	210	10%
Other	132	6%
Other	500	23%

Readers by discipline	Count	As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences	846	39%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology	386	18%
Medicine and Dentistry	383	18%
Unspecified	128	6%
Chemistry	54	3%
Other	353	16%

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3053. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 November 2018.

All research outputs

#173

of 12,154,763 outputs

Outputs from Science

#13

of 54,578 outputs

Outputs of similar age

of 275,319 outputs

Outputs of similar age from Science

of 778 outputs

Altmetric has tracked 12,154,763 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.

So far Altmetric has tracked 54,578 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 37.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.

Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 275,319 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.

We're also able to compare this research output to 778 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.

Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions

About this Attention Score

Mentioned by

Citations

Readers on

Twitter Demographics

Geographical breakdown

Demographic breakdown

Mendeley readers

Geographical breakdown

Demographic breakdown

Attention Score in Context