Cancer: The Evolutionary Legacy - Hardcover

Greaves, M. F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192628356 ISBN 13: 9780192628350

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Around one in three people will at some time in their lives be diagnosed with cancer. For Western societies relishing health, wealth, and longevity, its continued prominence is one of the greatest challenges to science. Cancer is extraordinarily diverse in its causation, symptoms, likelihood of effective treatment - in some sense, every patient's cancer is unique, and that is part of the problem. Mel Greaves explains why the old paradigms of infectious diseases or genetic disorders have proved fruitless, and claims that by looking at cancer in its evolutionary context, we can begin to answer some of the big questions in cancer that concern us all. Drawing on both ancient and more modern evolutionary legacies, he shows how human development has changed the rules of evolutionary games, trapping us in a nature-nurture mismatch.

About this title

Review:

Cancer is one of the major afflictions of society today, especially in the developed world. The disease develops as a chromosomal gene disorder in single cells. Worldwide, over eight million new cancer diagnoses are delivered each year and every day 1500 Americans die of the disease. Mel Greaves shows in The Deepest Legacy that the disease has been around for a long time, even dinosaurs got it 200 million years ago. Cancer does not select its victims on a basis of wealth, race, religion or intelligence. No one is immune to it but which cancer you are likely to get depends on many factors--where you live, what you eat and smoke and the genes you have inherited from your parents.

Greaves is a British professor of cell biology at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, knows what he is writing about and manages to deal with this very complex and pervasive problem in an understandable way for the general reader. He uses a wealth of stories and anecdotes to illustrate the history of discovery and understanding of this group of diseases, their curious geographical distribution and evolution. Most importantly, Greaves manages to clearly differentiate between what is understood and what is still speculation.

This is not dumbed down science, be prepared to concentrate if you are to get the full value of what he is explaining. Cancer is more complex than the 5000 other human genetic diseases that arise as inherited, single gene traits. Unfortunately, the painful reality is that there is no holy grail, no magic cure-all bullet and no quick fix. But as Greaves says, demystifying the disease is to travel over a new and more realistic landscape. If you know anyone who still smokes, give them a copy. Notes, further reading and addresses for help and advice about cancer make this more than just a fascinating read. --Douglas Palmer

Review:

...a cleverly paced and extremely informative guide to current thinking about the evolutionary biology of cancer. -- The Lancet, March 3, 2001

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0192628356
• ISBN 13: 9780192628350
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288