Cancer Is to Embryology as Mutation Is to Genetics: Hypothesis of the Cancer as Embryological Phenomenon

Figure 4

Embryonic model of cancer. The normal cell lineage of tissue renewal is at the bottom. The three different tumors are at the top. The different types of cancer correspond to their different embryonic origins. S: normal stem cell; E: tumor of the endodermic origin; M: tumor of the mesodermic origin; and EC: tumor of the ectodermic origin. Model adapted from the original idea of Pierce, 1983.