I. Cancer is a disorder that involves the transformation of normal benign body cells into malignant rapidly dividing cells. Our Evolution and Cancer Quest begins with an examination of cells. First, let's define;

 1. In the text box below briefly summarize what is cancer? Click on the text box to activate it. Type in your answer. Click off the box to deactivate it.

2. List three characteristics that would label cell growth as cancerous. Click on the text box to activate it. Type in your answer. Click off the box to deactivate it.

II. How Cancer Grows extends the What is Cancer? section and will explain some of the molecular biology of the disease. It is a bit more technical, but necessary if you are to effectively grasp the implications of this unfolding Evolution Cancer Quest.

When you've finished the presentation, answer the following two questions . Click on the box next to the correct answers and place an X in them.

1. The first genetic mutation in the early stages of carcinoma (epithelial cancer) formation can take different forms such as: (3 answers)

2. For a cell to become cancerous it generally requires a series of more than two mutations to occur.

III.

Read the opening paragraph Darwinian Medicine of Dr. Wynne-Edwards summary.

1. In the text box below briefly state the main concern of women who have survived breast cancer.

2. The main risk factors for this form of cancer appear to be internal-age is the biggest single determining factor, followed closely by age at first pregnancy.

3. Briefly explain below what Dr. Wynne-Edwards did to find a common mechanism for breast cancer and how it was received by medical professionals.

Read the section headed Cancer from the Wynne-Edwards' paper and respond to the questions below.

4. What, according to Dr. Wynne-Edwards, are the five things a cell line has to achieve to become cancerous?

5. Briefly explain what age has to do with one's chances of getting cancer.

6. What is estrogen and what does it have to do with someone's chances of getting cancer?

Read Evolutionary Perspectives on Reproduction. Answer the questions below.

7. According to Dr. Wynne-Edwards interpretation of "primitive" humans, reproductive cycles of "modern" humans have been changed so dramatically that females are exposed to a great deal more estrogen than their ancestors.

8. What is the correlation between ovulation and estrogen? How, according to Dr. Wynne-Edwards, does it contribute to causing breast cancer?

Read How Estrogen Contributes to Cancer in the Breast . Respond the the following questions.

9. When a woman goes through puberty, the cells in her breasts do not respond to estrogen to develop and proliferate.

10. Between puberty and first pregnancy, the cells of the breast are primed to respond to estrogen, which makes

11. Many forms of breast cancer have been found to grow in response to estrogen, and women who have breast cancer are often treated with anti-estrogens.

12. What is tamoxifen and can it possibly prevent cancer from occurring?

13. The older a woman is when she has her first child, the lower her chance of developing breast cancer at any point in her life.

14. In between puberty and first pregancy, while the cells in the breast are waiting for the estrogen signal to undergo the final stage of development

15. The longer a woman waits before having her first child, the longer her breast cells undergo rapid division.

16. Women who have children shortly after puberty go immediately to the final stage of breast development where the mitotic rate (and therefore the chance of mutations) is much lower.

Return to Darwinian Medicine. You and your partner discuss the four questions provided by Dr. Wynne-Edwards. After you have talked to one another be prepared for a classroom discussion that will examine these same questions.

Related Links:

Evolutionary Biology Resources

This is a list of cyberresources from the Internet that deal with interesting issues in Evolutionary Biology. They were assembled to provide supplemental materials for a course in Evolutionary Biology at Saint Anselm College.

What is Darwinian Medicine?

A brief overview of: Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine by Randolph Nesse and George Williams, Vintage Books, 1996.

Darwinian Evolutionary Medicine

An editorial from the Southern Medical Journal on Darwinian (Evolutionary) Medicine

Darwinian Medicine Website

This Website was first created for Science Week 1997, after which it has continued to be devoted to Darwinian Medicine; under constant review and open to your ideas and comments.

Paul Ewald:Infectious Disease and the Evolution of Virulence

The transcript of an interview with Paul Ewald on the PBS Evolution site.

Infectious Disease as an Evolutionary Paradigm

Joshua Lederberg, Sackler Foundation Scholar, Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA

The basic principles of genetics and evolution apply equally to human hosts and to emerging infections, in which foodborne outbreaks play an important and growing role. However, we are dealing with a very complicated coevolutionary process in which infectious agent outcomes range from mutual annihilation to mutual integration and resynthesis of a new species. In our race against microbial evolution, new molecular biology tools will help us study the past; education and a global public health perspective will help us deal better with the future.

Deadly Evolution

Deadly Evolution is an audio file from Sound Print produced by Loretta Williams and Marjorie Centofanti.

A flu suddenly becomes deadly and kills more than 20 million people. Malaria, once easily treated, has become one of the most persistent diseases of our time. Even new viruses such as HIV exhibit variations in the virus's ability to kill. A variety of factors influence the spread and deadliness of disease, but some biologists think a critical influence has been overlooked--evolution. Producers Marjorie Centofanti and Loretta Williams explore the evolution theories that could lead to change in the treatment of infectious disease.

Learn more about the scientists featured in this program: Allen Herre shares a summary of an article on his virulence research, Paul Ewald contributes excerpts from his bibliography, and Phyllis Kanki describes her experiences as an HIV/AIDS researcher in Senegal.