[The mechanism of Carcinogenesis: a "promotor hypothesis"].

In 1969 the author proposed a hypothesis according to which neoplastic transformation was a result of appearance of promoter sequences belonging to integrated viral genome before certain cellular genes between the structural gene and its regulatory region [1, 2]. In the present paper the data accumulated during the passed time are discussed. In some cases the postulated mechanism for the initiation of oncogenic transformation really takes place. Further development of the "promoter hypothesis" is presented, in particular its application to a non-viral carcinogenesis.