ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2015
The multiple facets of Peto's paradox: a life-history model for the evolution of cancer suppression.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Increased risk of cancer in dogs and humans: a consequence of recent extension of lifespan beyond evolutionarily-determined limitations?Aging and cancer · 2022Article
- Life Course Tobacco Smoking and Risk of HPV-Negative Squamous Cell Carcinomas of Oral Cavity in Two Countries.Frontiers in oral health · 2022Article
- A phylogenetic review of cancer resistance highlights evolutionary solutions to Peto's Paradox.Genetics and molecular biology · 2022Article
- Comparative Oncology: New Insights into an Ancient Disease.iScience · 2020Review
- Predation shapes the impact of cancer on population dynamics and the evolution of cancer resistance.Evolutionary applications · 2020Article
- Can postfertile life stages evolve as an anticancer mechanism?PLoS biology · 2019Article
- From humans to hydra: patterns of cancer across the tree of life.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2018Review
- Size, longevity and cancer: age structure.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Towards cancer-aware life-history modelling.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2015Article
- Peto's paradox and the promise of comparative oncology.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2015Article
- Inclusive fitness effects can select for cancer suppression into old age.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Large animals should have higher lifetime probabilities of cancer than small animals because each cell division carries an attendant risk of mutating towards a tumour lineage. However, this is not observed--a (Peto's) paradox that suggests large and/or long-lived species have evolved effective cancer suppression mechanisms. Using the Euler-Lotka population model, we demonstrate the evolutionary value of cancer suppression as determined by the 'cost' (decreased fecundity) of suppression verses the 'cost' of cancer (reduced survivorship). Body size per se will not select for sufficient cancer suppression to explain the paradox. Rather, cancer suppression should be most extreme when the probability of non-cancer death decreases with age (e.g. alligators), maturation is delayed, fecundity rates are low and fecundity increases with age. Thus, the value of cancer suppression is predicted to be lowest in the vole (short lifespan, high fecundity) and highest in the naked mole rat (long lived with late female sexual maturity). The life history of pre-industrial humans likely selected for quite low levels of cancer suppression. In modern humans that live much longer, this level results in unusually high lifetime cancer risks. The model predicts a lifetime risk of 49% compared with the current empirical value of 43%.
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