Larger Animals Face Higher Cancer Rates, Overturning Decades-Old Assumptions

New research debunks Peto’s paradox, showing that bigger species are more prone to cancer but have evolved advanced defenses.

A study analyzing 263 species reveals a direct link between larger body size and higher cancer prevalence, challenging the long-held belief known as Peto's paradox.
Researchers found that species evolving larger sizes rapidly, such as elephants, developed advanced cancer defenses, mitigating but not eliminating increased risks.
Elephants, despite their size, have cancer rates comparable to much smaller animals like tigers due to multiple copies of the tumor-suppressing TP53 gene.
Outlier species include budgerigars, with cancer rates 40 times higher than expected for their size, and naked mole rats, which show exceptional cancer resistance.
The findings could inform human cancer research by studying animals with unique cancer resistance mechanisms, paving the way for potential medical breakthroughs.