All papers from the first issue are well before my time, but I had no problem making my choice. Going through the index, my eye was immediately caught by a name (Dukes), and seeing the title of the paper (Familial intestinal polyposis) I realised this had to be my pick. With today's knowledge, it was fun to look back and see what at that time was already known and what may have been wrong or incomplete.

Well, nothing much was wrong. The paper¹ gives an accurate description of the first data on families with polyposis and colorectal cancer. It is explained that in some families multiple polyps occur, strictly confined to the colon, and that this predisposes to colonic cancer. Several statements still hold true: the young age at diagnosis of cancer, the “tendency for malignant disease to begin at an earlier age period in each succeeding generation,” the need for “constant …