Cancer age: can we reliably estimate and apply this knowledge?

In their article, Patrone et al utilize a modified version of Collins’ law to estimate the age of breast, lung, and colorectal cancers. Collins’ law, which states that the period of risk for recurrence of a tumor is equal to the age of the patient at diagnosis plus 9 months, has been applied primarily to pediatric tumors, in particular embryonal tumors.[1,2] The results from the application of Collins’ law to these tumors have been reasonable, although exceptions have been reported and the law is not applicable to all cancers.[3,4] Its utilization in adults in the manner used in this paper is therefore unique.