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Doctors may have discovered why elephants rarely get cancer. They have twice as many tumor-blocking genes as humans.
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Scooped by Graham Player Ph.D. |
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Graham Player Ph.D.'s insight:
If we consider everything known by science about cancer, then elephants should be more prone to cancer than humans. The rate at which elephants grow, which requires cell division, is exponentially higher than in humans. Each time a cell divides there is an opportunity for a cancer cell to be created. Some experts believe that cancer is a disease of aging. Yet in captivity less than 5% of elephants, which typically live for 70+ years, have died due to cancer.
According to a recent study comparing mammalian species, elephants appeared to have a lower-than-expected rate of cancer, potentially related to multiple copies of TP53. Compared with human cells, elephant cells demonstrated increased apoptotic (cell death) response following DNA damage. The TP53 gene is the main cancer suppressor gene. Humans have only two (one from each parent) compared to elephants which have forty.
Comparing mammalian species elephants appeared to have a lower-than-expected rate of cancer, as per a recent research. Find out more.