. 2014 Dec 18;107(2):dju405. doi: 10.1093/jnci/dju405

Table 1.

Some differences between Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT) and Tissue Organization Field Theory (TOFT) related to interpretation of observational results

Type of difference	SMT	TOFT
Summary	1) Genetic disease 2) Focus on cancer cell	1) Development gone awry
Summary	1) Genetic disease 2) Focus on cancer cell	2) Focus on tissue interactions
Mutations	Needed for cancer to develop	1) Not needed for cancer to develop
		2) Genetic instability is byproduct of cancer
		3) Additional hypothesis: in some cases, mutations lead to cancer by disrupting morphostats, mechanical forces, or bioelectric signals
Adjacent tissue	Supporting role:	Key role:
	1) Affects fitness of clones	Cancer rises from disruption of interactions with adjacent tissue
	2) Incipient neoplasia recruits stromal cells
Location of cancer relative to exposure	Cancer only arises in tissue exposed to carcinogen	Cancer can arise in tissue not exposed to carcinogen