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Hanahan and Weinberg publish 'The Hallmarks of Cancer'
A dated cancer milestone (2000): an influential framework for shared features of cancers. Why it mattered, its limits, and how the field evolved.
Original commentary from the Cancer Explained editorial team.
Historical context: this page explains an event dated 2000. It was published as an explainer on July 12, 2026 and is not breaking news.
Please note: this page is educational only — it is not medical advice, and it does not speculate about anyone’s health beyond reliable public reporting. For questions about your own health, talk with your healthcare team.
Historical milestone — this page describes an event dated 2000. It is not current breaking news.
One review article, and the argument inside it
In January 2000, Douglas Hanahan and Robert Weinberg published a review in the journal Cell, volume 100, issue 1, pages 57 to 70. Its title was "The hallmarks of cancer."
It reported no experiment. It made an argument. More than a hundred distinct diseases are called cancer, arising in different organs from different cells with different mutations. Hanahan and Weinberg proposed that beneath all that variety, every one of them has to acquire the same short list of capabilities.
They named six.
The six
Making their own growth signals. Normal cells wait to be told to divide. Cancer cells produce the instruction themselves.
Ignoring stop signals. Healthy tissue tells cells to stop dividing when there is no room. Cancer cells stop listening.
Escaping programmed cell death. Cells have a built-in self-destruct, called apoptosis, that fires when a cell is damaged beyond repair. Cancer cells disable it.
Dividing without limit. Ordinary cells can only divide a set number of times. Cancer cells restore the machinery that resets that counter, so the clock never runs out.
Recruiting a blood supply. A tumor larger than a millimeter or two starves without vessels. It signals for new ones to grow toward it, a process called angiogenesis.
Invading and spreading. Cells break out of the tissue they started in, enter blood or lymph, and set up elsewhere. This is metastasis, and it causes most cancer deaths. Our page on how cancer spreads explains the mechanics.
What it changed
Before this, cancer research read as a catalogue of separate diseases and a long list of mutated genes. The hallmarks gave the field a shared frame: instead of asking which gene is broken, ask which capability the tumor has gained and how.
That framing runs directly into treatment. Drugs that block angiogenesis exist because angiogenesis was named as a requirement, not a side effect. Drugs that release the immune brake on tumors exist because immune evasion was later named the same way. Our explainer on how cancer treatment is planned shows where those categories appear in a real plan.
The list has been revised twice
In 2011 the same two authors published "Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation," also in Cell, volume 144, pages 646 to 674. It added two capabilities: reprogramming how the cell uses energy, and evading destruction by the immune system. It also described two enabling characteristics, genome instability and tumor-promoting inflammation.
In 2022 Hanahan published "Hallmarks of Cancer: New Dimensions" in Cancer Discovery, volume 12, pages 31 to 46. It proposed further dimensions, including the ability of cancer cells to change identity and avoid maturing into their normal adult form.
Three versions in twenty-two years is the useful part of the story. This is a map that gets redrawn when the territory turns out to be different, which is what a working scientific framework looks like.
What it does not do at the bedside
A hallmark is a description of a capability, not a target with a drug attached.
Every tumor recruits blood vessels. That does not mean an angiogenesis inhibitor will help any particular patient, and in several cancers those drugs add less than was hoped. Every tumor escapes cell death. No drug simply switches apoptosis back on.
The framework explains why a treatment strategy might work. It does not predict whether it will work in one person. Treatment decisions still rest on the tumor type, its stage, and specific biomarker results.
When to get checked
A framework about cell biology does not produce a symptom list. What it does explain is why cancer symptoms are so varied: they come from a tumor pressing on something, bleeding, using resources, or seeding elsewhere.
NCI lists changes worth taking to a doctor when they persist:
- A lump or thickened area anywhere, including breast, neck, armpit or groin
- Bleeding or bruising with no known cause, including blood in urine or stool
- A cough or hoarseness that does not go away
- Trouble swallowing, or indigestion that keeps returning
- A sore that does not heal, or a mole that is changing
- Severe fatigue that lasts, or fevers and night sweats with no cause
- Weight loss or weight gain you cannot explain
Persistence is the trigger, not severity. NCI's advice is to see a doctor about symptoms that last a couple of weeks or do not get better after a few weeks.
What this does not mean
- This was a synthesis of other researchers' work, not a discovery. Its value is the organization it imposed.
- It is a conceptual map, not a treatment plan. A tumor showing a hallmark does not mean a drug aimed at that hallmark will help.
- The framework has been revised in 2011 and again in 2022, and may be revised again.
- Not every tumor acquires every capability in the same order, or by the same route.
- Nothing here is advice about anyone's own care.
Sources
- Hanahan D, Weinberg RA. The hallmarks of cancer. Cell. 2000;100(1):57-70. PMID 10647931, NCBI eutils record — https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&id=10647931&retmode=xml
- Hanahan D, Weinberg RA. Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation. Cell. 2011;144:646-74. PMID 21376230, NCBI eutils record — https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&id=21376230&retmode=xml
- Hanahan D. Hallmarks of Cancer: New Dimensions. Cancer Discov. 2022;12:31-46. PMID 35022204, NCBI eutils record — https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&id=35022204&retmode=xml
- NCI, What Is Cancer? — https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/what-is-cancer
- NCI, Symptoms of Cancer — https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/diagnosis-staging/symptoms
How this article was prepared
An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.
The National Cancer Information Foundation publishes Cancer Explained. This page is for learning. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.
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Put the story in context
Prevention, possible warning signs, screening, and diagnosis
This story relates to Cancer. The information below is general: it does not reveal anything else about a public person’s health, and not every point applies to every cancer. Personal advice depends on age, symptoms, family history, exposures, and medical history.
Prevention and risk reduction
Not every cancer can be prevented. Avoiding tobacco, protecting skin from ultraviolet radiation, limiting alcohol, staying active, and receiving recommended HPV or hepatitis B vaccination can lower the risk of certain cancers. A risk factor is not a prediction or a cause in one individual.
Symptoms and possible early signs
Possible signs vary and are often caused by conditions other than cancer. Changes worth discussing include a new lump, unexplained bleeding or weight loss, a persistent cough, lasting bowel or bladder changes, a changing skin spot, or symptoms that persist or worsen. Some early cancers cause no symptoms.
Screening and early detection
Screening looks for certain cancers before symptoms begin. Recommended tests exist only for some cancers and depend on age and risk. Screening can have benefits and harms; it is not the same as evaluating a new symptom, and there is no single routine scan or blood test that reliably screens for every cancer.
How cancer is diagnosed
Diagnosis may involve a history and exam, imaging, laboratory tests, and often a biopsy. Pathology can identify the cancer type and may test biomarkers that guide treatment. Symptoms, screening results, tumor markers, or online stories alone cannot confirm cancer.
A public story may encourage questions, but it should not be used to estimate your risk or choose testing. Contact a healthcare professional about a persistent or concerning change. Seek urgent care for severe or rapidly worsening symptoms.