From: Extropian Agroforestry Ventures Inc. (megao@sasktel.net)
Date: Tue Sep 02 2003 - 20:27:06 MDT
Not a science based answer, the KISS answer ;
Cell lines can either differentiate and die by apoptosis or attempt to regenerate
back to a stem cell line. Cancer might be thought of as an unsuccessful attempt
at regeneneration?
"Terry W. Colvin" wrote:
> Science Frontiers, No. 149, Sep-Oct, 2003, p. 2
> < http://www.science-frontiers.com >
>
> BIOLOGY
>
> Life's Lethal Quality Control?
>
> Cancer is such a deadly scourge of life that one wonders why it was not
> strongly selected against and totally eliminated from all forms of life
> long ago. Does cancer's eons-long persistence among a wide spectrum of
> living things imply that it has some purpose---some positive value that
> we are blind to?
>
> In SF#30, back in 1983, it was observed that the incidence of cancer is
> strongly correlated with the complexity of organisms. It would seem
> therefore that cancer tends to damp out any tendency life has (or is
> given) to attain higher states of diversity and complexity. Some even
> hold that cancer is the price that must be paid by higher forms of life!
>
> But there is much more to be said about the potential roles of cancer in
> the development of human life.
>
> It must be recognized that the bulk of human cancers occur in individuals
> beyond the age of reproduction. If old-age cancer has an evolutionary
> purpose, it might be simply the reduction of the drain nonproducing oldsters
> place upon society.
>
> One can also speculate as do A. Leroi and J. Graham that cancer is one of
> evolution' methods of quality control. To be effective in this role,
> cancer must affect individuals capable of reproduction---before they
> reproduce. However, there are only a few lethal childhood cancers
> specifically associated with additions to human biological diversity. Two
> such examples are: brain cancer and bone cancer.
>
> These are interesting observations, but they alone can hardly account for
> the strong correlation between cancer incidence and complexity.
>
> J. Graham goes much further in his 1992 book _Cancer Selection_. There, he
> claims that cancer is *the* driving force in the creation of biological
> diversity. In other words, living things tend to evolve features that
> reduce the incidence of cancer. One of the examples Graham proposes is
> the evolution of shells by snails to protect themselves from cancer-inducing
> solar ultraviolet light. His book contains many more examples.
>
> (Watts, Geoff; "Life's Lethal Quality Control," *The Times Higher Education
> Supplement*, April 11, 2003. Cr. J. Graham.)
>
> Comment. Since cancer has survived the filtering action of natural
> selection for hundreds of millions of years and attacks so many organs
> in so many diverse species, we wonder if it has a single, simplistic
> explanation.
>
> --
> “Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress.” Copyright 1992, Frank Rice
>
> Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
> Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com >
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