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. 2019 Nov 6;16(160):20190332. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2019.0332

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© 2019 The Authors.

Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Figure 1. — Cancer and the biological hierarchy. Genetic alterations induce modified intra-cellular signalling and drive the emergence of cancerous cellular phenotypes. The cells aggregate to form cancerous tissues (tumours) that eventually disseminate through the body. A reductionist approach suggests that this complex system can be understood by considering the basis (genetic) units. This approach fails owing to feedback mechanisms that bridge downward in the hierarchy. Evolution is an example of a such a mechanism as selection at the cellular, tissue or organ level determines which altered genotypes survive. Contrasting the reductionist approach is quantitative holism (qolism). Reproduced with permission from Anderson & Quaranta [38]. (Online version in colour.)