Compton Zachary T, Ågren J Arvid, Marusyk Andriy, Nedelcu Aurora M
University of Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.
University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Evol Med Public Health. 2024 Aug 26;13(1):92-100. doi: 10.1093/emph/eoae019. eCollection 2025.
Comparative oncology has made great strides in identifying patterns of cancer prevalence and risk across the tree of life. Such studies have often centered on elucidating the evolution of mechanisms that prevent the development and progression of cancer, especially in large animals such as elephants. Conclusions from this approach, however, may have been exaggerated, given that the deep evolutionary origins of multicellularity suggest that the preeminent functions of the identified mechanisms may be unrelated to cancer. Instead, cancer suppression may have emerged as an evolutionary byproduct, or "spandrel". We propose a novel evolutionary perspective that highlights the importance of somatic maintenance as the underlying axis of natural selection. We argue that by shifting the focus of study from cancer suppression to somatic maintenance, we can gain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary pressures that shaped the mechanisms responsible for the observed variation in cancer prevalence across species.
比较肿瘤学在识别整个生命之树上癌症的流行模式和风险方面取得了巨大进展。此类研究通常集中于阐明预防癌症发生和发展的机制的演变，尤其是在大象等大型动物中。然而，鉴于多细胞生物的深层进化起源表明，所确定机制的主要功能可能与癌症无关，这种方法得出的结论可能被夸大了。相反，癌症抑制可能是作为一种进化的副产品或“附带现象”出现的。我们提出了一种新的进化观点，强调体细胞维持作为自然选择潜在轴心的重要性。我们认为，通过将研究重点从癌症抑制转移到体细胞维持，我们可以更深入地理解塑造了导致物种间癌症流行率观察到差异的机制的进化压力。
