Cancer is hidden in the process of evolution. For cancer, evolution has not completely relaxed. Our body has many strategies to prevent cancer. All multicellular organisms have TP53 tumor suppressor gene, which is one of the key genes to prevent abnormal cell proliferation, such as whales and elephants, especially good at inhibiting cancer.
Elephants are huge, and from the perspective of multicellular organisms, they should be prone to cancer, but one of them is in their bodies? Multiple copies of anti-cancer genes can help it fight cancer.
Surprisingly, due to the large size of cancer cells, it is speculated that the more cells in animals, the greater the probability of cancer, but this is not the case.
At present, scientists hope to use the amazing resistance mechanism of whales and elephants to cancer and apply it to the treatment of cancer patients. This mechanism is closely related to the role of TP53 tumor suppressor gene. Whales and elephants have more copies of TP53 gene than most multicellular organisms.
Scientists are studying how to isolate protein produced by TP53 gene in elephants, which will eventually make human beings successfully resist cancer. Population culture may affect that cancer women are more resistant to most cancers than men, which may be because women's longevity helps future generations to survive.
If cancer cells lurk until the end of human reproductive age, the probability of cancer in postmenopausal women will not increase greatly. This is a very complicated process, and the phenomenon can be partially explained by the "grandmother hypothesis". Older women play a very important role in raising grandchildren. They provide life support for their grandchildren, so evolutionary selection has been promoting the continuation of cancer suppressor genes after menopause. Generally speaking, women can cope with cancer better than men and respond better to treatment.