50 Years Ago in CORR: Heredity as a Factor in Malignancy H. Winnett Orr MD CORR 1956;8:142–146

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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].