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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2025.1489294
Peto's Paradox: 2 problems 2 answers
Provisionally accepted- NHS England, London, United Kingdom
Peto's paradox throws down the gauntlet to researchers to explain why larger animals have the same cancer risk as more diminutive species, notwithstanding the much higher cellularity of the former. Any explanation of the paradox must also contend with the fact that larger animals have a greater longevity and thus longer for their greater number of cells to undergo mutagenesis. The Paradox comprises two questions. The first is why larger animals exhibit the same tumour risk as smaller animals. The second is why those with greater longevity do not have a higher cancer risk than more ephemeral species. The Paradox has appeared so elusive as it has been often assumed that any single explanation must account for both phenomena simultaneously. In reality Peto's paradox comprises two problems with two distinct solutions.
Keywords: Peto's paradox, immunosurveillance, Immunoediting, Cancer, Mutation Rate, Ageing, Body mass
Received: 31 Aug 2024; Accepted: 12 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Uzoigwe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chika Edward Uzoigwe, NHS England, London, United Kingdom
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