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The following statement from the article is at odds with your speculation: "Peto noted that, in general, there is little relationship between cancer rates and

by folli 9y ago

The following statement from the article is at odds with your speculation: "Peto noted that, in general, there is little relationship between cancer rates and the body size or age of animals." According to your speculation, you would expect that large and old animals would have a lower cancer rate.

masklinn 9y ago
Of significant note is the naked mole rat (a 30g 8cm rodent so about the size and weight of the average house mouse) which for a long time was though immune to cancer (they're not, but they are ridiculously resistant to it).
PhasmaFelis 9y ago
As weight and lifespan increase, unchanging cancer rates per capita actually mean substantially increasing cancer resistance per cell/year, as discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14699628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14699628
Pica_soO 9y ago
Large and old are factors on the indivdual. But preyed upon is a factor impacting on the history of a species (all individuals). So a (in evolutionary terms recently) huge, old rodent, still carrys the baggage of the past. The size matters only in evolutionary time lengths - if a lot of individuals are to big to be predated. PS: Was the factor of age reduced cell division as a tumor hiding factor even removed from the statistics? Finally what about metabolism rate as amplifier of cancer? Slow metabolisms with a constant intake (no peaks of production and consumption), no constant heating costs due to small body size. My "Speculation" is just there to remind people that taking some individual factors and correlating them into seemingly meaningful results ignores the complexity of the situation.
- folli 9y ago
  Please note that the word "animal" in the quote of Peto's paradox and my comment refers to "species" and not an "individual", as you infer in your reply. So yes, the species will include the baggage of the past.
  - Pica_soO 9y ago
    Which in itself is interesting.. which animals did we know to continuously grow for live and only recently hitting upon hard times. Dinosaurs- but birds do get cancer and are not predated- crocodiles and Commode-dragons seem to be excluded. Maybe im wrong here.

by folli 9y ago

masklinn 9y ago

Of significant note is the naked mole rat (a 30g 8cm rodent so about the size and weight of the average house mouse) which for a long time was though immune to cancer (they're not, but they are ridiculously resistant to it).

PhasmaFelis 9y ago

As weight and lifespan increase, unchanging cancer rates per capita actually mean substantially increasing cancer resistance per cell/year, as discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14699628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14699628

Pica_soO 9y ago

Large and old are factors on the indivdual. But preyed upon is a factor impacting on the history of a species (all individuals). So a (in evolutionary terms recently) huge, old rodent, still carrys the baggage of the past. The size matters only in evolutionary time lengths - if a lot of individuals are to big to be predated. PS: Was the factor of age reduced cell division as a tumor hiding factor even removed from the statistics? Finally what about metabolism rate as amplifier of cancer? Slow metabolisms with a constant intake (no peaks of production and consumption), no constant heating costs due to small body size. My "Speculation" is just there to remind people that taking some individual factors and correlating them into seemingly meaningful results ignores the complexity of the situation.

folli 9y ago
Please note that the word "animal" in the quote of Peto's paradox and my comment refers to "species" and not an "individual", as you infer in your reply. So yes, the species will include the baggage of the past.
- Pica_soO 9y ago
  Which in itself is interesting.. which animals did we know to continuously grow for live and only recently hitting upon hard times. Dinosaurs- but birds do get cancer and are not predated- crocodiles and Commode-dragons seem to be excluded. Maybe im wrong here.