Mehr lesen
When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don't necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked, for the historical processes that created life also created cancer. The Cheating Cell delves into this extraordinary relationship, and shows that by understanding cancer's evolutionary origins, researchers can come up with more effective, revolutionary treatments. Athena Aktipis goes back billions of years to explore when unicellular forms became multicellular organisms. Within these bodies of cooperating cells, cheating ones arose, overusing resources and replicating out of control, giving rise to cancer. Aktipis illustrates how evolution has paved the way for cancer's ubiquity, and why it will exist as long as multicellular life does. Even so, she argues, this doesn't mean we should give up on treating cancer--in fact, evolutionary approaches offer new and promising options for the disease's prevention and treatments that aim at long-term management rather than simple eradication.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Athena Aktipis is assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and in the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center at Arizona State University and cofounder of the International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer. She is also the host of the science podcast Zombified. She lives in Tempe, Arizona. Twitter @AthenaAktipis
Zusammenfassung
A fundamental and groundbreaking reassessment of how we view and manage cancer
Vorwort
This book explains how cancer is evolution happening inside our bodies, and how this understanding of cancer as the result of evolution has the potential to change treatment.
Zusatztext
"A gem of outreach and science communication, the book takes the reader through an impressive amount of cancer research in a nontechnical and often illustrative way. . . . I recommend The Cheating Cell for its innovative approach, standing as a valuable contribution to the cross-fertilization of ideas from diverse domains of research, like social evolutionary theory and cancer research."---Simon Okholm, Metascience
