Why are larger animals less likely to develop cancers?
In: Biology
So one thing I found was that in some larger animals, elephants of which have been most studied they actually contain more tumor suppressor Gene’s. So in cancers 2 things have to happen, activation of an oncogene. These essentially tell cells to divide. This alone is ok because cellular development occurs with cycles. Each cycle has a checkpoint where the cell is checked to make sure everything is ok (this done through a complicated series of protein and enzymatic reactions) however if damage or other anomalies are present there are proteins that recognize this and induce apoptosis or cell death. These are tumor suppressor genes. You have 2 copies and elephants have more. Because of this more mutations or exposures are required. All tumor suppresses need to be knocked out for full on cancer development.
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