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Asked by olzz to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 20 Jun 2011.
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Steven Daly answered on 17 Jun 2011:
I would not think so, because cancer is harmful and causes death, which would be selected against in evolution. I think that a lot of cancer is caused by mutation to the DNA, which is actually the same thing that can cause new traits to appear in a species. So I guess in a way the two can be considered related, but cancer is a harmful mutation.
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Ed Morrison answered on 19 Jun 2011:
Evolution means change over time, usually changes in the genes of a population over generations. Cancer is where cells replicate themselves out of control and cause damage to the body. This is a change that takes place during the lifetime of an individual so does not count as evolution. In fact, our body takes a lot care to make sure that cancer doesn’t happen by trying to stop unregulated cell replication. Sometimes, this goes wrong and cancer results.
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Sam Tazzyman answered on 20 Jun 2011:
It’s not a form of human evolution, because for one thing cancer affects other species in addition to humans – my Mum’s cat died from cancer. But in a way we can learn something about evolution from cancer: I think that cancer results when a cell’s programming goes wrong and it starts dividing uncontrollably. This is an example of when there is a conflict of interest between cells and the organism that makes them up. If the cells repeatedly divide there are more of them, but if they reign in this element of their existence they can co-exist together in a larger organism. Evolutionary theory is full of these conflicts of interest.
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