ReviewBiological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society2018
From humans to hydra: patterns of cancer across the tree of life.
Review in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 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.
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
64 citing papers in PubMed, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Longer-lived mammals exhibit greater evolutionary conservatism and epigenetic modification at cancer-associated loci.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Resistance to tumorigenesis in the african spiny mouse (Acomys) correlates with upregulation of multiple tumor suppressor genes.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Evolution of the MUC1 gene in eutherian mammals as an adaptation responsible for the increasing incidence of cancer in humans.Biochimica et biophysica acta. Reviews on cancer · 2026Review
- Cancer Across Domestic Animals: A Descriptive Review from the Veterinarian's Perspective.Veterinary sciences · 2026Review
- Of Barriers and Loops-How Evolution Limits Most Cancer Risks to Older Ages.Cancer discovery · 2026Review
- Dark Skin Evolution in Early Humans: Revisiting the Skin Cancer Hypothesis Through Migration-Related Mismatch.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Divergent evolution of hepatocellular carcinoma genomes in chimpanzees and humans.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Article
- The evolution of cancer and ageing: a history of constraint.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2025Review
- Recent Non-LTR Retrotransposon Activity Predicts Cancer Prevalence in Mammals.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Shrinking to bird size with dinosaur-level cancer defences: Evolution of cancer suppression over macroevolutionary time.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Metabolomic Prediction of Naphthalene Pneumo-Toxicity in the SnailMetabolites · 2025Article
- 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
- The first embryo, the origin of cancer and animal phylogeny. V. Cancer stem cells as the unifying biomechanical principle between embryology and oncology.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2025Review
- Revisiting the genotoxic syndrome: Why are we overlooking the ecological impacts of genotoxins on animal populations?Genetics and molecular biology · 2025Article
- The complex effects of modern oncogenic environments on the fitness, evolution and conservation of wildlife species.Evolutionary applications · 2024Article
- The molecular evolution of cancer associated genes in mammals.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Onco-Breastomics: An Eco-Evo-Devo Holistic Approach.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Oncogenic BRCA1,2 Mutations in the Human Lineage-A By-Product of Sexual Selection?Biomedicines · 2023Review
- The effect of placentation type, litter size, lactation and gestation length on cancer risk in mammals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Comparative analysis of bats and rodents' genomes suggests a relation between non-LTR retrotransposons, cancer incidence, and ageing.Scientific reports · 2023Article
4 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
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Cancer is a disease of multicellularity; it originates when cells become dysregulated due to mutations and grow out of control, invading other tissues and provoking discomfort, disability, and eventually death. Human life expectancy has greatly increased in the last two centuries, and consequently so has the incidence of cancer. However, how cancer patterns in humans compare to those of other species remains largely unknown. In this review, we search for clues about cancer and its evolutionary underpinnings across the tree of life. We discuss data from a wide range of species, drawing comparisons with humans when adequate, and interpret our findings from an evolutionary perspective. We conclude that certain cancers are uniquely common in humans, such as lung, prostate, and testicular cancer; while others are common across many species. Lymphomas appear in almost every animal analysed, including in young animals, which may be related to pathogens imposing selection on the immune system. Cancers unique to humans may be due to our modern environment or may be evolutionary accidents: random events in the evolution of our species. Finally, we find that cancer-resistant animals such as whales and mole-rats have evolved cellular mechanisms that help them avoid neoplasia, and we argue that there are multiple natural routes to cancer resistance.
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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.