INTRODUCTION Previous reports have suggested that close to 90％ of cancer biology publications are irreproducible.The low number has recently been corroborated by five detailed replication studies in eLife,which have been commented on in Nature (Replication studies offer much more than technical details.Nature 2017;541:259-60).While the irreproducibilityis often attributed to human factors,which are remediable,the reason might be biological and the irreproducibility is intrinsic to such studies.The low reproducibility,reflecting the diversity in the evolutionary pathways of tumourigenesis,will likely significantly impact clinical strategies.