Adaptive oncogenesis

Adaptive oncogenesis is a theory of cancer initiation that explains age-related cancer risk by changes in selection rather than by changes in mutation supply. James DeGregori formulated it.

The argument

An oncogenic mutation is a reproductive advantage or disadvantage for a cell, and which one it is depends on the tissue the cell lives in. In young, healthy tissue, cells carrying oncogenic mutations usually divide more slowly or die more readily than their normal neighbors, so selection removes them. Aging, and the damage that comes with it — inflammation, fibrosis, reduced stem-cell competition, altered signaling — changes the relative fitness of cell phenotypes.