How elephants evolved to become big and cancer-resistant – Science Daily

All things being equal, large, long-lived animals should have the highest risk of cancer.The calculation is simple: Tumors grow when genetic mutations cause individual cells to reproduce too quickly. A long life creates more opportunities for those cancerous mutations to arise. So, too, does a massive body: Big creatures — which have many more cells — should develop tumors more frequently.
Why, then, does cancer rarely afflict elephants, with their long lifespans and gargantuan bodies? They are…

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