Cancer research attracts broad resources and scientists from many disciplines, and has produced some impressive advances in the treatment and understanding of this disease. However, a comprehensive mechanistic view of the cancer process remains elusive. To achieve this it seems clear that one must assemble a physically integrated team of interdisciplinary scientists that includes mathematicians, to develop mathematical models of tumorigenesis as a complex process. Examining these models and validating their findings by experimental and clinical observations seems to be one way to reconcile molecular reductionist with quantitative holistic approaches and produce an integrative mathematical oncology view of cancer progression.