Elephants Have 100x More Cells Than You. So Why Don't They Get Cancer?

Elephants have roughly 100 times more cells than a human. Every one of those cells can mutate. By the math, elephants should be dropping dead from cancer constantly. They're not. Elephant cancer rates are LOWER than ours — and for decades, nobody could explain why. This is the story of Peto's Paradox, the gene that shouldn't exist, and what it might mean for treating cancer in humans. 0:00 The Impossible Elephant 0:45 The Rule Elephants Are Breaking 2:01 The Paradox 3:20 The Gene That Shouldn't Exist 5:36 Not Just Elephants 7:12 Why This Matters For You 8:30 The Takeaway Sources: Peto R, et al. "Cancer and ageing in mice and men." Br J Cancer, 1975 — the original paradox. Abegglen LM, et al. "Potential Mechanisms for Cancer Resistance in Elephants." JAMA, 2015 — the TP53 gene duplication discovery. Sulak M, et al. "TP53 copy number expansion is associated with the evolution of increased body size and an enhanced DNA damage response in elephants." eLife, 2016. Seluanov A, et al. "Hypersensitivity to contact inhibition provides a clue to cancer resistance of naked mole-rat." PNAS, 2009. Keane M, et al. "Insights into the evolution of longevity from the bowhead whale genome." Cell Reports, 2015. A note on the numbers: in the video, the "roughly 4 in 10" figure for humans is closer to lifetime cancer risk. The 2015 JAMA study reports cancer mortality of about 4.8% in elephants versus 11-25% in humans. New videos most weeks. All sources always cited. #animalfacts #biology #cancer #elephants #wildexception