The multistage model for carcinogenesis was developed in the 1950’s.  The model is largely attributed to Armitage and Doll in a 1954 paper in the British Journal of Cancer.  There were some follow-up articles in the next couple of decades expanding on the mathematics of this theory.  However, after that there was a fallow period with only few mathematics papers on the subject.  The papers that did appear during this period were largely surveys offering no new advances.

Recently the multistage model has been revisited with some important revisions.  The revisions come from new insights into the biomolecular processes that produce cancer.  We will report on these new insights and some advances made in our seminar this past summer.