| Value |
30
%
|
| Organism |
Mammals |
| Reference |
Rangarajan A, Weinberg RA. Opinion: Comparative biology of mouse versus human cells: modelling human cancer in mice. Nat Rev Cancer. 2003 Dec3(12):952-9. p.952 middle column top paragraphPubMed ID14737125
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| Primary Source |
4] Ames, B. N., Saul, R. L., Schwiers, E., Adelman, R. & Cathcart, R. in Molecular Biology of Ageing (eds Sohal, R. S., Birnbam, L. S. & Cutler, R. G.) 137–144 (Raven Press, New York, 1985). [5] Holliday, R. Neoplastic transformation: the contrasting stability of human and mouse cells. Cancer Surv. 28, 103–115 (1996).PubMed ID8977031
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| Comments |
P.952 left column bottom paragraph to middle column top paragraph: "Mice are not small people: Size, age and cancer. Humans are about 3,000 times larger than mice and are formed from a proportionately larger number of cells. Moreover, humans live, on average, 30–50 times longer than mice. Given the continued, lifelong turnover of cells in the bodies of both mammals, this means that humans undergo about 10^5 more cell divisions in a lifetime that is, 10^16 versus 10^11 mitoses. As the risk of genetic damage, including the creation of mutant alleles that lead to cancer, increases in proportion to the number of cell divisions, this means that humans should experience vastly higher rates of cancer incidence. Yet, epidemiological studies reveal that the lifetime risk of developing cancer is comparable in both species. About 30% of laboratory rodents have cancer by the end of their 2–3 year lifespan and about 30% of people have cancer by the end of their 70–80 year lifespan (primary sources) (Fig. 1). Moreover, although the incidence of cancer increases with age in both species, 30% of humans clearly do not have cancer by the age of 3 years (Fig. 1). So, a marked decrease in age-specific cancer rates has accompanied the substantial increase in lifespan that has occurred during the past 80 million years of the mammalian evolution that led, via the primate lineage, to humans. This decrease in cancer susceptibility has been accomplished through the development of several distinct antineoplastic mechanisms, many of which are intrinsic to human cells (ref 6)." |
| Entered by |
Paul Jorgensen |
| ID |
105254 |