Cancer may simply have been an example of kind, rather than specific to the case at hand; however, I wouldn't disregard it as quickly as you do. The grandmothe

Cancer may simply have been an example of kind, rather than specific to the case at hand; however, I wouldn't disregard it as quickly as you do. The grandmother hypothesis [http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/evolutions-secret-weapon-grandma/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/evolutions-secret-w...] supports cancer resistance as an evolutionarily beneficial gene. You also miss the obvious unstated point that cancer resistance itself may just be a side effect of another characteristic, such as more efficient mitochondria. Your third paragraph fails to support any of its assertions; cancer resistance takes many forms, and most mutations are negative in nature: some math would likely be necessary to support a (carefully worded) argument in either direction.