Cancer

Cancer is everywhere. Around one in three of us will at some time in our lives have an unwelcome diagnosis of cancer; every day 1500 Americans and vastly more non-Americans die of the disease. For Western societies relishing health, wealth, and longevity, its continued prominence is one of the greatest challenges to our scientists. And the illness we call cancer is extraordinarily diverse in its causation, symptoms, likelihood of effective treatment - in some sense, every patient's...
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Cancer is everywhere. Around one in three of us will at some time in our lives have an unwelcome diagnosis of cancer; every day 1500 Americans and vastly more non-Americans die of the disease. For Western societies relishing health, wealth, and longevity, its continued prominence is one of the greatest challenges to our scientists. And the illness we call 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. In this important new book, Mel Greaves explains why the old paradigms of infectious diseases or genetic disorders have proved fruitless when trying to account for the complex and elusive puzzle that is cancer. Rather, he claims that 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. Compelling examples, from the King of Naples intestinal tumour in the 15th Century, through the epidemic of scrotal skin cancer in 18th century chimney sweeps, to the current surge of cases of prostate cancer illustrate his thesis. And finally, he looks at the implications for research, prevention, and treatment of cancer that an evolutionary perspective provides. Drawing on all the most recent research, this is the first book to put cancer in its evolutionary framework. At a time when Darwinian perspectives on everything from language acquisition to economics are gaining ground, medicine seems to have much to gain from the insights provided by evolutionary biology. Written in an exceptionally lucid and entertaining style, this book will be of broad interest to all those who wish to understand the big C, the biggest killer of them all.