Darwin, medicine and cancer.

Annals of Oncology : Official Journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology
A D Purushotham, R Sullivan

Abstract

'Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution'! So said Theodore Dobzhansky. It is extraordinary how little Darwinism and post-Darwinian evolutionary science has penetrated medicine despite the fact that all biology is built upon its foundations. Randy Nesse, one of the fathers of Darwinian medicine, recently observed that doctors 'know the facts but not the origins'. Clearly, then, in this auspicious year-200 years since Charles Darwin's birth and 150 years since the first edition of the Origin of Species-it is time to reconsider Darwin's legacy to medicine and to invite evolution back into the biomedical fold. Here, we consider the legacy of Darwin and the contribution of the other great evolutionists such as Ernst Mayr to cancer and medicine.

References

Jul 1, 1977·Journal of the National Cancer Institute·M EffronK Benirschke
Jan 23, 1984·Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character·C R Scriver
May 1, 1999·Journal of Human Evolution·J F O'connellN G Blurton Jones
Mar 1, 2002·Mechanisms of Ageing and Development·Thomas B L Kirkwood
Apr 5, 2003·Current Biology : CB·Steven A Frank
Nov 10, 1961·Science·E MAYR
Jul 23, 2004·Nature·Patrick BatesonSonia E Sultan
May 17, 2006·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Bernard Crespi, Kyle Summers
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Nov 1, 1996·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·M W Feldman, K N Laland
Feb 1, 2008·Evolutionary Applications·Randolph M Nesse, Stephen C Stearns

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Citations

Jan 22, 2010·Annals of Oncology : Official Journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology·Y-S Liu
Nov 25, 2011·Endocrinología y nutrición : órgano de la Sociedad Española de Endocrinología y Nutrición·Carles Zafón
Jun 5, 2015·Journal of Neurophysiology·Ronen SosnikTamar Flash
Aug 31, 2021·The EMBO Journal·Roberto VendraminCharles Swanton

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
dissection

Software Mentioned

Darwin
Descent

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