Figure 1

Hypothetic gene expression patterns in cancer patients and healthy controls in a population with the similar genetic background. If both groups of cancer patients and healthy controls have a gene expressed in Pattern A, we can assume that this gene might correlate to normal aging but not cancer onset. However, if a gene expression only correlates with the age of disease onset in cancer patients (Pattern A) but does not correlate with normal aging in healthy controls (Pattern B), we can assume that this gene might correlate to the postponing of cancer onset.