Precursors in Cancer Epidemiology: Aligning Definition and Function

A precursor of a disease is a definable pathologic state that progresses directly to disease without a known intermediate step and whose presence substantially increases the likelihood of disease. Precancers, or precursors of cancer, can help provide detail about the dynamic pathogenesis process before clinical disease. Thereby, ascertainment of properly defined precancers can increase precision of estimates and power in epidemiologic and...