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Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals

BACKGROUND: Cancer is a common diagnosis in many mammalian species, yet they vary in their vulnerability to cancer. The factors driving this variation are unknown, but life history theory offers potential explanations to why cancer defense mechanisms are not equal across species. METHODOLOGY: Here w...

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Autores principales: Boddy, Amy M, Abegglen, Lisa M, Pessier, Allan P, Aktipis, Athena, Schiffman, Joshua D, Maley, Carlo C, Witte, Carmel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7652303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33209304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoaa015
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author Boddy, Amy M
Abegglen, Lisa M
Pessier, Allan P
Aktipis, Athena
Schiffman, Joshua D
Maley, Carlo C
Witte, Carmel
author_facet Boddy, Amy M
Abegglen, Lisa M
Pessier, Allan P
Aktipis, Athena
Schiffman, Joshua D
Maley, Carlo C
Witte, Carmel
author_sort Boddy, Amy M
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Cancer is a common diagnosis in many mammalian species, yet they vary in their vulnerability to cancer. The factors driving this variation are unknown, but life history theory offers potential explanations to why cancer defense mechanisms are not equal across species. METHODOLOGY: Here we report the prevalence of neoplasia and malignancy in 37 mammalian species, representing 11 mammalian orders, using 42 years of well curated necropsy data from the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We collected data on life history components of these species and tested for associations between life history traits and both neoplasia and malignancy, while controlling for phylogenetic history. RESULTS: These results support Peto’s paradox, in that we find no association between lifespan and/or body mass and the prevalence of neoplasia or malignancy. However, a positive relationship exists between litter size and prevalence of malignancy (P = 0.005, Adj. R2 = 0.212), suggesting that a species’ life history strategy may influence cancer vulnerabilities. Lastly, we tested for the relationship between placental invasiveness and malignancy. We find no evidence for an association between placental depth and malignancy prevalence (P = 0.618, Adj. R2 = 0.068). CONCLUSIONS: Life history theory offers a powerful framework to understand variation in cancer defenses across the tree of life. These findings provide insight into the relationship between life history traits and cancer vulnerabilities, which suggest a trade-off between reproduction and cancer defenses. LAY SUMMARY: Why are some mammals more vulnerable to cancer than others? We test whether life history trade-offs may explain this variation in cancer risk. Bigger, longer-lived animals do not develop more cancer compared to smaller, shorter-lived animals. However, we find a positive association between litter size and cancer prevalence in mammals.
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spelling pubmed-76523032020-11-17 Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals Boddy, Amy M Abegglen, Lisa M Pessier, Allan P Aktipis, Athena Schiffman, Joshua D Maley, Carlo C Witte, Carmel Evol Med Public Health Original Research Article BACKGROUND: Cancer is a common diagnosis in many mammalian species, yet they vary in their vulnerability to cancer. The factors driving this variation are unknown, but life history theory offers potential explanations to why cancer defense mechanisms are not equal across species. METHODOLOGY: Here we report the prevalence of neoplasia and malignancy in 37 mammalian species, representing 11 mammalian orders, using 42 years of well curated necropsy data from the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We collected data on life history components of these species and tested for associations between life history traits and both neoplasia and malignancy, while controlling for phylogenetic history. RESULTS: These results support Peto’s paradox, in that we find no association between lifespan and/or body mass and the prevalence of neoplasia or malignancy. However, a positive relationship exists between litter size and prevalence of malignancy (P = 0.005, Adj. R2 = 0.212), suggesting that a species’ life history strategy may influence cancer vulnerabilities. Lastly, we tested for the relationship between placental invasiveness and malignancy. We find no evidence for an association between placental depth and malignancy prevalence (P = 0.618, Adj. R2 = 0.068). CONCLUSIONS: Life history theory offers a powerful framework to understand variation in cancer defenses across the tree of life. These findings provide insight into the relationship between life history traits and cancer vulnerabilities, which suggest a trade-off between reproduction and cancer defenses. LAY SUMMARY: Why are some mammals more vulnerable to cancer than others? We test whether life history trade-offs may explain this variation in cancer risk. Bigger, longer-lived animals do not develop more cancer compared to smaller, shorter-lived animals. However, we find a positive association between litter size and cancer prevalence in mammals. Oxford University Press 2020-05-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7652303/ /pubmed/33209304 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoaa015 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Foundation for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research Article
Boddy, Amy M
Abegglen, Lisa M
Pessier, Allan P
Aktipis, Athena
Schiffman, Joshua D
Maley, Carlo C
Witte, Carmel
Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals
title Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals
title_full Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals
title_fullStr Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals
title_full_unstemmed Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals
title_short Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals
title_sort lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals
topic Original Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7652303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33209304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoaa015
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