{"doi":"10.1016/j.cdev.2024.203964","title":"Of criminals and cancer: The importance of social bonds and innate morality on cellular societies","abstract":"The current dogma in cancer biology contends that cancer is an identity problem: mutations in a cell's DNA cause it to “go rogue” and proliferate out of control. However, this largely ignores the role of cell-cell interaction and fails to explain phenomena such as cancer reversion, the existence of cancers without mutations, and foreign-body carcinogenesis. In this proof-of-concept paper, we draw on criminology to propose that cancer may alternatively be conceptualized as a relational problem: Although a cell's genetics is essential, the influence of its interaction with other cells is equally important in determining its phenotype. We create a simple agent-based network model of interactions among normal and cancer cells to demonstrate this idea. We find that both high mutation rates and low levels of connectivity among cells can promote oncogenesis. Viewing cancer as a breakdown in communication networks among cells in a tissue complements the gene-centric paradigm nicely and provides a novel perspective for understanding and treating cancer. • Somatic mutation theory cannot explain several empirical observations, such as cancer reversion & cancers without mutations. • We draw on criminology and corruption to propose a new explanatory framework to understand cancer initiation and progression. • To explore the implications of our new framework, we use computational modeling--namely agent-based network models. • Finding: genetics is important to oncogenesis, but considering the social network in which cells interact is equally crucial.","journal":"Cells and Development","year":2024,"id":473841,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9558,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":397914,"name":"Frederick R. Adler","orcid":"0000-0002-9022-3157","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":732158,"name":"Anuraag Bukkuri","orcid":"0000-0002-3616-626X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":52,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:06:04.967429Z","pmid":"39151750","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}