Cancer and the goals of integration

• Cancer is a case study in complex causation.
• Nonetheless the multi-stage theory has captured key elements of the process of carcinogenesis.
• We compare and contrast integration with unification as a goal of science, using the multistage theory as a case study.

Cancer is not one, but many diseases, and each is a product of a variety of causes acting (and interacting) at distinct temporal and spatial scales, or “levels” in the biological hierarchy. In part because of this diversity of cancer types and causes, there has been a diversity of models, hypotheses, and explanations of carcinogenesis. However, there is one model of carcinogenesis that seems to have survived the diversification of cancer types: the multi-stage model of carcinogenesis. This paper examines the history of the multistage theory, and uses the theory as a case study in the limits and goals of unification as a theoretical virtue, comparing and contrasting it with “integrative” research.