A statistical test of the hypothesis that polyclonal intestinal tumors arise by random collision of initiated clones

Biometrics. 2006 Sep;62(3):721-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-0420.2006.00522.x.

Abstract

The random collision hypothesis is a mathematical idealization of intestinal tumor formation that can account for the polyclonal origin of tumors without requiring a mechanistic description of clonal interaction. Using data from recent polyclonality studies in mice, we develop a statistical procedure to test the random collision hypothesis. Elements from stochastic geometry and approximations due to Armitage (1949, Biometrika 36, 257-266) support a statistical model of tumor count data. Bayesian analysis yields the posterior distribution of the number of heterotypic tumors, from which p-values are computed to test random collision.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Biometry
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic
  • Clone Cells / pathology
  • Intestinal Neoplasms / etiology*
  • Intestinal Neoplasms / pathology
  • Mice
  • Models, Biological*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Predictive Value of Tests