Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#21

Post by Jun8 » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 7:40 AM UTC

ganzuul wrote: post #9

Do other large mammals have similar cancer resistance? How many cells does a blue whale have?

Able to answer this since I just read an article on this in the Economist (https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/06/29/...): It seems whale genes have evolved to supress cancer. These include ATR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataxia_telangiectasia_and_Rad3...) that senses DNA damade, AMER1 (https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/AMER1), which stifles cell growth, and RECK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RECK), which suppresses metastatis.

These genes are also found in humans but the hope is that studying genes from animals like elephants and whales we can find ones that we don't have.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#22

Post by chubot » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 7:45 AM UTC

Didn't early humans also rarely get cancer?

My understanding is that cancer is one of those things you die from if you don't die at child birth, get eaten by predators, or get the flu, polio, malaria, the plague, etc.

That is, the reason cancer is such a big deal in modern times is because other causes of death have been controlled.

I don't know much about elephants but I imagine cancer is still low on their list of things to worry about (humans are probably a lot higher up) If they started living a lot longer, it would probably show up more.

People under 40-50 also rarely get cancer. Although I'm sure the human environment has produced some more causes of it that make those rates higher than they used to be.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#23

Post by computator » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 7:48 AM UTC

> He hopes to have a clinical trial within the next three to five years.

It's been just over 4 years since that article. I wonder what has happened since.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#24

Post by joebaf » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 7:53 AM UTC

chubot wrote: post #22

Didn't early humans also rarely get cancer? My understanding is that cancer is one of those things you die from if you don't die at child birth, get eaten by predators, or get the flu, polio, malaria, the plague, etc. That is, the reason cancer is such a big deal in modern times is because other causes of death have been controlled. I don't know much about elephants but I imagine cancer is still low on their list of…

Still, we have pediatric cancers that are not caused by lifestyle. I wonder what's the ratio for small elephants. Are the also more protected ?

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#25

Post by mikehotel » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 7:54 AM UTC

An old video [1] in response to this old article may indicate another reason why elephants dont get cancer, and provide easier way to replicate those results than gene therapy or splicing. Hint: go vegan.

[1] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die-from-cancer/...

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#26

Post by sl1ck731 » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 7:56 AM UTC

chubot wrote: post #22

Didn't early humans also rarely get cancer? My understanding is that cancer is one of those things you die from if you don't die at child birth, get eaten by predators, or get the flu, polio, malaria, the plague, etc. That is, the reason cancer is such a big deal in modern times is because other causes of death have been controlled. I don't know much about elephants but I imagine cancer is still low on their list of…

I believe I've read this verbiage around cancer in pets, such as domestic cats living far longer than "intended".

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#27

Post by Sniffnoy » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 8:12 AM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #18

duskwuff wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cancers you're thinking of in Tasmanian Devils are the result of a transmissible (!) tumor. The cancerous cells aren't the result of mutations within the animal's body, but instead are introduced into it from another infected animal. As such, genetic therapies are unlikely to have an effect.

Could you go in to more detail on why genetic therapies wouldn't work on a transmissible tumor? Aren't those tumors still affecting the genes in the cells and causing them to grow out of control?

No, the tumor is the cells growing out of control, not some separate thing that acts on the genes of nearby cells. Once cells have mutated into a tumor, it's a bit late to make them less prone to doing so.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#28

Post by londons_explore » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 8:12 AM UTC

chubot wrote: post #22

Didn't early humans also rarely get cancer? My understanding is that cancer is one of those things you die from if you don't die at child birth, get eaten by predators, or get the flu, polio, malaria, the plague, etc. That is, the reason cancer is such a big deal in modern times is because other causes of death have been controlled. I don't know much about elephants but I imagine cancer is still low on their list of…

Prehistoric human lifetime is very hard to estimate, but I have heard reports that while infant mortality was high, actual lifetimes could still reach 70+ years

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#29

Post by Sniffnoy » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 8:13 AM UTC

DoreenMichele wrote: post #16

duskwuff wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cancers you're thinking of in Tasmanian Devils are the result of a transmissible (!) tumor. The cancerous cells aren't the result of mutations within the animal's body, but instead are introduced into it from another infected animal. As such, genetic therapies are unlikely to have an effect.

As such, genetic therapies are unlikely to have an effect. Can you back that up somehow? That doesn't sound at all right to me. Edit: For the upvote, downvote brigade -- with zero reply so far, but this comment has gone to zero and back to one umpteen times already -- I'm genuinely curious. This isn't some kind of gotcha question. I have a genetic disorder. I have umpteen relatives who have had cancer. I actually hav…

We're talking about genetic therapies that would make cells less prone to mutating into cancerous cells. This would have no effect on cells that are already cancerous, introduced from an outside source.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#30

Post by cma » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 8:16 AM UTC

ganzuul wrote: post #9

Do other large mammals have similar cancer resistance? How many cells does a blue whale have?

I always thought it might be because with a larger volume of blood, their adaptive immune system could contain more permutations of antibodies, allowing them to detect more cancers.