The role of genes in cancer has been known for many decades. Snow, in an article in 1885, raised the question in the title of his article [4] and noted the widespread belief in the notion at the time:

I think I may reasonably assert that to this query an unhesitating answer in the affirmative would be returned by nearly the whole of the medical profession, the exceptions being few and far between. Now, if the question were purely theoretical, no great harm could be done by the persistence of a belief in heredity; but, as it appears to me that this opinion leads to the most important practical results, and is productive of enormous mischief, I venture to solicit from the profession a reconsideration of their attitude in the matter; and, should they withhold their assent from the conclusions I now endeavour to bring before them, at any rate not to regard the current theory as of indisputable authority, until they have thoroughly and dispassionately sifted the circumstances of as many individual cases in ordinary practice as they possibly can. For I am convinced that it is the difficulty of securing direct personal knowledge of the facts, that so greatly obscures our views on this and similar topics; amid in all such it is of the highest importance (I need hardly point out) to distrust all merely hearsay evidence, and to make ourselves as cognisant as possible of a patient’s family history, independently of the patient’s own statements [4].

Snow noted the difficulty of scientifically proving any such relationship, and even the deleterious effect of the public believing so, since many patients might assume a fatalistic attitude and avoid treatment:

I can, in extenuation, plead only my conviction: 1. That the belief in heredity is derived merely from popular tradition, and is wanting in any sound basis of scientific proof: 2. That extremely practical issues are involved, and that the views now prevalent lead to disastrous results [4].

Dr. Orr, in 1956, reviewing some of the animal experiments, commented, “It seems to me that the very extensive (and expensive) research now under way has had too little to say about the factor of heredity” [2]. He wondered whether and how evolution might be using cancer as a strategy:

“But when we consider that one of the finest manifestations of civilization is the perpetuation, the protection and the care, for years, of those whom nature would permit to fall by the wayside because they have cancer, we may well wonder whether all the misery and suffering, for the well and the sick, can possibly be in the interest of evolution in its better sense, and for the ultimate improvement of the human race” [2].