Cancer genetics: a primer for surgeons.

Contemporary ideas of carcinogenesis envisage a series of stochastic genetic changes that confer a selective growth advantage over healthy cells. These changes collectively lead to the disruption of coordinated networks of intercellular communication and cause a fundamental change in cellular behavior, which affects processes, such as proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. This progressive dysregulation of cellular function implies that cancer is not a morphologic entity, but a process in which the malignant phenotype is gradually acquired.