Models and concepts derived from human teratogenesis and oncogenesis in early life.

Several basic empirical facts are emphasized about human developmental oncology. The first is that teratogenesis and oncogenesis are intimately related and that indeed teratogenesis may be the more primitive reaction to the types of mutagenic injury giving rise to neoplasm. The second is that neoplasms of early life, particularly those initiated "in utero" are rare, and tend to spontaneously regress or cytodifferentiate. The theoretical models of carcinogenesis forwarded by Knudson and Matsunaga are enlisted in attempts to explain these phenomena and how the oncogene is expressed and modulated by the fetal or embryonal milieu.