Cancer almost surely has not been selected for in the manner you describe—this is extremely unlikely l. the inclusive fitness benefits are far too low
I recommend Dawkins’ classic ” the Selfish Gene” to understand this point better.
Cancer is the ‘default’ state of cells; cells “want to” multiply.
the body has many cancer suppression mechanisms but especially later in life there is not enough evolutionary pressure to select for enough cancer suppression mechanisms and it gradually loses out.
Oh ok, I had heard this theory from a friend. Looks like I was misinformed. Rather than evolution causing cancer I think it is more accurate to say evolution doesn’t care if older individuals die off.
evolutionary investments in tumor suppression may have waned in older age.
Moreover, some processes which are important for organismal fitness in youth may actually contribute to tissue decline and increased cancer in old age, a concept known as antagonistic pleiotropy
So thanks for clearing that up. I understand cancer better now.
No.
Cancer almost surely has not been selected for in the manner you describe—this is extremely unlikely l. the inclusive fitness benefits are far too low I recommend Dawkins’ classic ” the Selfish Gene” to understand this point better.
Cancer is the ‘default’ state of cells; cells “want to” multiply. the body has many cancer suppression mechanisms but especially later in life there is not enough evolutionary pressure to select for enough cancer suppression mechanisms and it gradually loses out.
Oh ok, I had heard this theory from a friend. Looks like I was misinformed. Rather than evolution causing cancer I think it is more accurate to say evolution doesn’t care if older individuals die off.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3660034/
So thanks for clearing that up. I understand cancer better now.