Reappraisal of the Field Effect Concept in Cancer Predisposition
Modern Pathology (2015) 28, 14–29 14 & 2015 USCAP, Inc All rights reserved 0893-3952/15 $32.00 Etiologic field effect: reappraisal of the field effect concept in cancer predisposition and progression Paul Lochhead1, Andrew T Chan2,3, Reiko Nishihara4,5, Charles S Fuchs3,4, Andrew H Beck6, Edward Giovannucci3,5,7 and Shuji Ogino4,7,8 1Gastrointestinal Research Group, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK; 2Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; 3Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 4Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 5Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; 6Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 7Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA and 8Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA The term ‘field effect’ (also known as field defect, field cancerization, or field carcinogenesis) has been used to describe a field of cellular and molecular alteration, which predisposes to the development of neoplasms within that territory. We explore an expanded, integrative concept, ‘etiologic field effect’, which asserts that various etiologic factors (the exposome including dietary, lifestyle, environmental, microbial, hormonal, and genetic factors) and their interactions (the interactome) contribute to a tissue microenvironmental milieu that constitutes a ‘field of susceptibility’ to neoplasia initiation, evolution, and progression. Importantly, etiological fields predate the acquisition of molecular aberrations commonly considered to indicate presence of filed effect.
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