Breeding Cancer-Proof Mice

Bob Vila's Hammer writes "In an article at New Scientist, research scientists at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina have been able to breed a cancer-proof mouse. The lucky new finds, some 700 cancer-proof mice, have the ability to destroy numerous different kinds of cancer cells in their bodies very efficiently without the use of T-cells (white blood cells). Instead the body's innate immune system attacks the tumor cells and ruptures them with neutrophils and macrophages. What is so astounding within early findings is that the power of these mice to resist cancer seems to be unlimited and as well, a genetic trait able to be passed down to further generations without the negative results of previous mouse breeds with autoimmune diseases."

Comments

Re:This is great, but I wonder...

[NonSequor]

Evolution involves more than just surviving to reproduce. You could say that longer lifetimes are "justified" evolutionarily if after reproducing the parents help out their children to ensure that they live to reproduce. For a species like fruit flies, I doubt there is much that the parents could do to help their young. But for humans, it is vital that the parents stick around.

As another poster noted, we do have resistances to cancer. It is only when these mechanisms are overridden that cancer develops. One could say that medical science is just another mechanism that we have evolved to protect ourselves from cancer and other threats. Medicine is the result of our intellect, an evolution which has done great things for us so far.