zlacker

>>gpi+(OP)
Ageing itself is a anti-cancer strategy...

>>nikola+74
This is an explicit hypothesis I have heard: that aging arises in part from a compromise between longevity and not getting cancer. Obviously an immortal who gets a bunch of tumors is not immortal.

That cancer cell lines are often immortal is interesting circumstantial evidence for this.

Telomere shortening for example is hypothesized as one stop mechanism for runaway cell division.

My bet would be that this is part of the answer but not the whole answer. Biological systems rarely have one part match one function. Biology is not “designed” the way humans design things.

>>api+c7
There’s cellular senescence that helps control the malignancies. Then we have an increase in senescent cell burden with age. Of course, you can put two and two together and say that aging protects from cancer. But that’s a wild jump. For one thing, we can’t prove there’s any kind of (evolutionary) benefit in controlling tumors in older age.