A phylogenetic review of cancer resistance highlights evolutionary solutions to Peto’s Paradox

Abstract

Cancer is a genetic disease present in all complex multicellular lineages. Finding ways to eliminate it is a goal of a large part of the scientific community and nature itself. Early, scientists realized that the cancer incidence at the species level was not related to the number of cells or lifespan, a phenomenon called Peto's Paradox. The interest in resolving this paradox triggered a growing interest in investigating the natural strategies for cancer suppression hidden in the animal's genomes. Here, we gathered information on the main mechanisms that confer resistance to cancer, currently described for lineages that have representatives with extended longevity and large body sizes. Some mechanisms to reduce or evade cancer are common and shared between lineages, while others are species-specific. The diversity of paths that evolution followed to face the cancer challenge involving coding, regulatory, and structural aspects of genomes is astonishing and much yet lacks discovery. Multidisciplinary studies involving oncology, ecology, and evolutionary biology and focusing on nonmodel species can greatly expand the frontiers of knowledge about cancer resistance in animals and may guide new promising treatments and prevention that might apply to humans.