When most of us consider the driving forces of cancer, not many of us would consider evolution to be one of them. PUP Speaks author Athena Aktipis, author of The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer, originally thought of cancer as simply a disease, separate from other more social organisms. It wasn’t until she began her research that Aktipis realized that not only is cancer a living and ever evolving entity, but it is evolution itself that has paved the way for cancer’s ubiquity. Aktipis asserts that this knowledge is crucial to creating treatment that’s smarter, more strategic, and more humane.
About the Author
Athena Aktipis is associate professor in the Department of Psychology and at the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center at Arizona State University and cofounder of the International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer. She is also the host of the science podcast Zombified and the producer of Channel Zed. Twitter @AthenaAktipis