Why Don't Big Animals Get More Cancer?

A solution to the cancer paradox? Cetacean needed!
↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓

Why do whales, elephants, and other large animals not get cancer? Logically, the larger an animal is, and the longer it lives, the more likely it should be to get cancer. But these giants don’t. Why is that? And can the answer help humanity?

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[BucksideThug]

That bell sound in the background music is the same as my ringtone. Had me looking for my phone half the video. Yes, the phone I was watching the video on. 🤦🏽‍♂️

[johncao]

A bit more elaboration on why large tumors are less viable than small ones: Oxygen diffusion limit. Molecular oxygen can only diffuse a few micrometers from a blood vessel. In normal tissue there's always a capillary a few microns away so that's not an issue. However as cancer cells are by definition abnormal growth, oxygen supply inevitably become too low inside a solid tumor. The cells experiencing low oxygen (hypoxia) will secrete a signal molecule called VEGF to stimulate capillary growth, but usually in a messy way, leading to internal bleeding etc. So as the tumor grows larger the inside often becomes necrotic and dies off due to lack of oxygen and nutrient.

[docv]

"Why big thing not get cancer."
- Joe 2022

[lukasvytisk]

Joe, I believe that you should have mentioned that people, in the past, used to die far earlier than we do now, so the high spike in cancer cases could be explained by lower number of cases of other deadly illneses that we were able to overcome. If you die due to infection when you are 25 you wont die from cancer at age 40-50. Just to be clear, I fully agree that our lifestyle has major flaws, but I just wanted to add this idea, so we can see the bigger picture.

[dailydoseofmedicinee]

Cancer cells differ from normal cells in many ways. For instance, cancer cells:

grow in the absence of signals telling them to grow. Normal cells only grow when they receive such signals.
ignore signals that normally tell cells to stop dividing or to die (a process known as programmed cell death, or apoptosis).
invade into nearby areas and spread to other areas of the body. Normal cells stop growing when they encounter other cells, and most normal cells do not move around the body.
tell blood vessels to grow toward tumors. These blood vessels supply tumors with oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products from tumors.

[InfectedChris]

Cancer sure isn't fun but I'm 5.5 years out from a glioblastoma diagnosis!

[WylliamJudd]

The way it was explained to me was that tumors require support structures to survive such as blood vessels, and that at the scale of a whale, a tumor that grows large enough to be a health problem for the whale would not be able to build the support structures required to survive and get enough oxygen. Sounds like that was a bit of a simplified version.

[Jakeassimilate]

Evolution never stops being interesting to me! Could watch videos like this all day!
Also, as an average sized guy who doesn’t smoke, drink or eat animals, this video was very reassuring 😂

[robinhahnsopran]

Joe: **cries in tall person**
Me, a 5'1 person: 😎

[skipmage]

Humans are huge.
the average size of vertebrates (eliminating all the insects bacteria and plants) is about the size of a domestic cat.
Humans are around the size of a deer.
I think everyone forgets just how big we are, instead focusing on why aren't we bigger. we could be half our current size and not much would change for us in terms of day to day living.

[junnisensei]

My mom so afraid of cancer that she learn everything from Internet myths, I always told her not to worry so much but she believe everyone except me.

[littlevoice_]

We as humans are also exposed to more carcinogenic factors in our environment plus this is compounded by diets that increase IGF1, chronic inflammation and poorly functioning immune systems.
I'm so pleased you finished on this note. There is much we can do to change our lifestyle to improve overall health and thus reduce cancer rates

[pinkgoergefloyd]

It’s all fun and games until the *tumor suppressor gene* is the one that mutates.

[ikhbjhbkm]

Our higher rates might have something to do with rapid gains in life expectancy over the last few hundred years. Way too fast for evolutionary biology to catch up. I'd expect elephants and whales probably have a similar life expectancy to 300 years ago, or maybe even lower.

[SamButler]

The way American Ts sound like Ds is pretty unfortunate for poor Professor Peto

[tessat]

One of the last giraffes at the National Zoo had to be put down in 2005 due to the fact that he had cancer. RIP Jafari! The rest were moved permanently to other facilities to make room for the renovations to the Elephant house.

[animalpeeps]

This video was so mind blowing to me when you covered how life basically had to find a way to fight itself in order for the organism as a whole survives. It's just crazy to think how complex multicellularity is, how amazing it is.

[Inv_Enot]

In 2021 my cousin died of cancer… it started in his legs and got to his lungs… its been hard for us especially his brothers…

[TheMadmax]

So it seems like the adventure of being smart has taken the form of acceptance, great work as always

[gvsingh]

Getting a whale to a CAT scan made my day, Thanks Joe, Have a great day yourself.