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, revolutiona...
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. Looking across species—from sponges and cacti to dogs and elephants—we are discovering new mechanisms of tumor suppression and the many ways that multicellular life-forms have evolved to keep cancer under control. By accepting that cancer is a part of our biological past, present, and future—and that we cannot win a war against evolution—treatments can become smarter, more strategic, and more humane.
Unifying the latest research from biology, ecology, medicine, and social science, The Cheating Cell challenges us to rethink cancer’s fundamental nature and our relationship to it.
作者简介
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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
作品英文原名是how évolution helps us understand and treat cancer能够比较好地阐述了全书主题和思想。从演化这一角度去解释这种众病之王的发展行为模式，理解其cheating表现的特征与手段，是为understand，从行为模式出发去制定治疗调整治疗目标，是为treat。从绝对的斩草...
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2 有用 普林斯顿读书汇 2020-04-10 14:53:15
当我们想到可能导致癌症的因素时，我们不一定会想到进化。但是本书指出，进化和癌症是紧密相连的，因为创造生命的历史过程也创造了癌症。作者深入研究了这种特殊的关系，并表明，通过了解癌症的进化起源，研究人员可以提出更有效的、革命性的治疗方法。对于任何一个真正想要了解癌症本质的人来说，本书绝对是一本必读之作。
2 有用 普林斯顿读书汇 2020-04-10 14:53:15
当我们想到可能导致癌症的因素时，我们不一定会想到进化。但是本书指出，进化和癌症是紧密相连的，因为创造生命的历史过程也创造了癌症。作者深入研究了这种特殊的关系，并表明，通过了解癌症的进化起源，研究人员可以提出更有效的、革命性的治疗方法。对于任何一个真正想要了解癌症本质的人来说，本书绝对是一本必读之作。