ArticleBMC biology2017
Peto's Paradox: how has evolution solved the problem of cancer prevention?
Article in BMC biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 134 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evolutionary study of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in breast carcinoma.Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences · 2026Article
- From the Selfish Gene to the "We": Cooperation Often Needs Suppressors.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Reconstructing mammalian lifespan evolution reveals strong phylogenetic effects and lifespan-associated genes.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Comparison of sterilisation methods for deer velvet antler extracts and their impact on anticancer activity.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Article
- Recent Non-LTR Retrotransposon Activity Predicts Cancer Prevalence in Mammals.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Medicinal plants: nutritional, immunological and therapeutic role in treating cancer-related malnutrition: a comprehensive review.Cancer cell international · 2025Review
- Towards a more robust comparative oncology: a Bayesian reanalysis of Peto's paradox and discussion of comparative cancer risk studies in vertebrates.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Natural resistance to cancers in long-lived mammals: genomic mechanisms and experimental evidence to explain Peto's paradox.Science China. Life sciences · 2025Article
- Population size interacts with reproductive longevity to shape the germline mutation rate.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The mammalian longevity associated acetylome.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Preserving Fossilized Soft Tissues: Advancing Proteomics and Unveiling the Evolutionary History of Cancer in Dinosaurs.Biology · 2025Article
- Mammalian Species-Specific Resistance to Mammary Cancer.Journal of mammary gland biology and neoplasia · 2025Review
- The Elephant and the Spandrel.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2025Article
- Analysis of Cancer-Resisting Evolutionary Adaptations in Wild Animals and Applications for Human Oncology.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Review
- Population size interacts with reproductive longevity to shape the germline mutation rate.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- DNA repair and anti-cancer mechanisms in the long-lived bowhead whale.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- The Evolutionary Interplay of Somatic and Germline Mutation Rates.Annual review of biomedical data science · 2024Review
- Ancient Diseases in Vertebrates: Tumours through the Ages.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- A phylogenetic method linking nucleotide substitution rates to rates of continuous trait evolution.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The risk of developing cancer should theoretically increase with both the number of cells and the lifespan of an organism. However, gigantic animals do not get more cancer than humans, suggesting that super-human cancer suppression has evolved numerous times across the tree of life. This is the essence and promise of Peto's Paradox. We discuss what is known about Peto's Paradox and provide hints of what is yet to be discovered.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.