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Navigable Slide Index

1. Introduction
2. Cancer in developed vs. less developed countries
3. Adult vs. childhood cancer
4. Risk of cancer
5. Cancer: the very basics
6. Cancer cell biology
7. What causes the mutations?
8. Cancer roulette
9. Cancer from an evolutionary point of view
10. Evolutionary vs. proximate causes of diseases
11. Diseases from an evolutionary perspective
12. Darwinian medicine (1)
13. Darwinian medicine (2)
14. Limitations of adaptation by natural selection
15. Evolutionary medicine and cancer: principle no. 1
16. Design limitations/trade-offs
17. Stem cells - a good idea?
18. Stem cell behaviour and cancer risk (1)
19. Stem cell behaviour and cancer risk (2)
20. Evolutionary medicine and cancer: principle no. 2
21. Clonal evolution of a cancer
22. The process is not that simple
23. Implications of cancer clones development
24. Evolutionary medicine and cancer: principle no. 3
25. Mismatches that result in cancer (1)
26. Breast cancer is not a new disease
27. Logic of breast cancer risk
28. Mismatches that result in cancer (2)
29. Evolutionary medicine and cancer: principle no. 4
30. Ageing and cancer
31. The cancer prescription

Topics Covered

• The prevalence of cancer: man vs. animals
• The proximal causes of cancer: mutations and genotoxic exposures
• Limitations of evolutionary adaptation by natural selection
• Vulnerability to cancer from an evolutionary perspective
• Lack of perfection in evolutionary 'engineering': faults/trade-offs
• Evolutionary adaptation 'has no eyes to the future': mismatches between genetics and lifestyle
• Natural selection will happen: evolution of robust cancer clones
• The only fitness test of 'natural selectability' in evolution is survival and reproductive success: cancer risk escalation in old age

Links

Series:

• Evolution and Medicine

Categories:

• Cancer
• Genetics & Epigenetics

Therapeutic Areas:

• Oncology

Talk Citation

Publication History

• Published on October 1, 2007
• Reviewed on August 16, 2020

Financial Disclosures

• Prof. Mel Greaves has not informed HSTalks of any commercial/financial relationship that it is appropriate to disclose.