ArticleEvolution, medicine, and public health2024
Life history traits and cancer prevalence in birds.
Article in Evolution, medicine, and public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- No genome-wide correlations and little shared genetic architecture between reproductive life-history traits and estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer risk.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Leveraging comparative phylogenetics for evolutionary medicine: applications to comparative oncology.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Article
- Immune-cancer analyses across mammals reveal a potential trophic level and platelet-linked tradeoff between cancer and trauma mortality.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Coevolution of cooperative lifestyles and reduced cancer prevalence in mammals.Science advances · 2025Article
- Shrinking to bird size with dinosaur-level cancer defences: Evolution of cancer suppression over macroevolutionary time.PLoS computational biology · 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 relationship between diet, plasma glucose, and cancer prevalence across vertebrates.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Germline mutation rate predicts cancer mortality across 37 vertebrate species.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2024Article
- Life history traits and cancer prevalence in birds.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2024Article
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16 authors.
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Abstract
Background and objectives: Cancer is a disease that affects nearly all multicellular life, including the broad and diverse taxa of Aves. While little is known about the factors that contribute to cancer risk across Aves, life history trade-offs may explain some of this variability in cancer prevalence. We predict birds with high investment in reproduction may have a higher likelihood of developing cancer. In this study, we tested whether life history traits are associated with cancer prevalence in 108 species of birds. Methodology: We obtained life history data from published databases and cancer data from 5,729 necropsies from 108 species of birds across 24 taxonomic orders from 25 different zoological facilities. We performed phylogenetically controlled regression analyses between adult body mass, lifespan, incubation length, clutch size, sexually dimorphic traits, and both neoplasia and malignancy prevalence. We also compared the neoplasia and malignancy prevalence of female and male birds. Results: Providing support for a life history trade-off between somatic maintenance and reproduction, we found a positive relationship between clutch size and cancer prevalence across Aves. There was no significant association with body mass, lifespan, incubation length, sexual dimorphism, and cancer. Conclusions and implications: Life history theory presents an important framework for understanding differences in cancer defenses across various species. These results suggest a trade-off between reproduction and somatic maintenance, where Aves with small clutch sizes get less cancer.
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