Larger mammals have many more cells than smaller mammals, and cancer risk increases with cell count, all other things being equal. Between species, body size does not correlate with cancer risk, however. Since species such as elephants and whales do not suffer an enormous rate of cancer in comparison to humans, clearly there are important differences in cellular biochemistry between these species. One example is that elephants have been found to have many copies of the tumor suppressor gene p53, and here researchers explore further to show that elephants have many copies of other tumor suppressor genes as well, each of which contributes to an overall lower risk of cancer despite a large body with many cells. Looking at other large mammals, this appears to be a fairly general mechanism ac…
Large Body Size in Mammals is Accompanied by Duplication of Tumor Suppressor Genes
Larger mammals have many more cells than smaller mammals, and cancer risk increases with cell count, all other things being equal. Between species, body size does not correlate with cancer risk, however. Since species such as elephants and whales do not suffer an enormous rate of cancer in comparison to humans, clearly there are important differences in cellular biochemistry between these species. One example is that elephants have been found to have many copies of the tumor suppressor gene p53, and here researchers explore further to show that elephants have many copies of other tumor suppressor genes as well, each of which contributes to an overall lower risk of cancer despite a large body with many cells. Looking at other large mammals, this appears to be a fairly general mechanism ac…