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Figure 1. Schematic representation of the two-mutation model for cancer induction. The organ of interest is assumed to contain N normal cells that have the potency to become malignant (M) in two rate-limiting steps (stochastic rates µ1 and µ2). In the intermediate stage (I), the growth advantage of cells on the pathway to malignancy is accounted for by stochastic birth and death rates ( and  , respectively). The growth time of a malignant cell into a detectable tumour (T) is characterized by a deterministic lag time (tlag).
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