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TOWARD CULTURAL
ONCOLOGY: THE
EVOLUTIONARY INFORMATION
DYNAMICS OF CANCER
Rodrick Wallace
The New York State Psychiatric Institute
Deborah Wallace
Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Robert G. Wallace
City University of New York*
January 7, 2003
Abstract
‘Racial’ disparities among cancers, particularly of the breast and
prostate, are something of a mystery. For the US, in the face of slav-
ery and its sequelae, centuries of interbreeding has greatly leavened
genetic differences between ‘Blacks’ and ‘whites’, but marked contrasts
in disease prevalence and progression persist. ‘Adjustment’ for socioe-
conomic status and lifestyle, while statistically accounting for much
of the variance in breast cancer, only begs the question of ultimate
causality. Here we propose a more basic biological explanation that
*Address correspondence to: Rodrick Wallace, PISCS Inc., 549 W. 123 St., Suite 16F,
New York, NY, 10027. Telephone (212) 865-4766, email [email protected]. Affilia-
tions are for identification only. This material has been submitted for publication and is
protected by copyright.