Over 500 billion cells in our bodies will be replaced daily,
yet natural selection has enabled us to develop defenses against the cellular
mutations which could cause cancer. It is this relationship between evolution
and the body’s fight against cancer which is explored in a new special issue of
the Open Access journal Evolutionary Applications.
“Cancer is far from a single well-defined disease which we
can identify and eradicate,” said Dr Athena Aktipis, Director, Human and Social
Evolution, Center for Evolution and Cancer at the University of California, San
Francisco. “It is highly diverse and evolutionary theory allows us to consider
cancer as a highly complex and evolving ecosystem. This approach can improve
the understanding, treatment and prevention of a number of different cancer
types.”