Abstract
We argue that the human evolutionary heritage with frequent adaptations through geological time to environmental change has affected a trade-off between offspring variability and cancer resistance, and thus favored cancer-prone individuals. We turn the attention to a factor setting the highly cancer-resistant naked mole rat apart from most other mammals: it has remained phenotypically largely unchanged since 30-50 million years ago. Research focusing on DNA stability mechanisms in ‘living fossil’ animals may help us find tools for cancer prevention and treatment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1652-1654 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Cancer Medicine |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Subject classification (UKÄ)
- Medical Genetics
Free keywords
- cancer resistance
- Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary
- Heterocephalus glaber
- human cancer excess
- human mutation rate
- naked mole rat
- Peto's paradox
- rapid human evolution
