Will we cure cancer by sequencing thousands of genomes?

The promise to understand cancer and develop efficacious therapies by sequencing thousands of cancers has not occurred. Mutations in specific genes termed oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes are extremely heterogeneous amongst the same type of cancer as well as between cancers. They provide little selective advantage to the cancer and in functional tests have yet to be shown to be sufficient for transformation. Here I discuss the karyotyptic theory of cancer and ask if it is time for a new approach to understanding and ultimately treating cancer.