The neoplastic process and the problems with the attribution of function

Within the reductionist paradigm that has dominated the cancer research scene over the past 50 years, the definition of cancer and the explanation of its origin have always been given at the molecular genetic level. The neoplastic process is thus commonly explained as the accumulation of somatic mutations in certain genes that thus give rise to tumor cells, with consequent assignment of function to those genes involved. Nevertheless, the search for an essential definition of this disease has shifted attention from molecular components toward the functional properties of the tumor itself, which seems to present specific capabilities, emerging over the course of the disease, so that the functional test is always required to test the properties of certain genes to give tumors. The aim of this work will be to analyze how functions are attributed within the reductionist paradigm, and then proceed to the hypothesis of cancer as a phenomenon linked to loss of organic function and discuss how this notion is consistent with a number of theories already present in the literature and could provide a more unified interpretation of the neoplastic process itself. From this analysis, some elements emerge that highlight the inadequacy of the reductionist interpretation of cancer, with some reasons for the inherent contradiction deriving from the attribution of function to the parts of a biological system when one wants to explain the whole. We also suggest that the characteristics of cancer cells could be functions recovered coincident with the loss of certain functions of the organism as a whole. In this light, a different relation emerges between cancer and selective pressure.