Surprisingly, there are.
Elephants and whales are one of the known ones among large animals that don’t get cancer – it is fascinating.
There are scientists that actually work on elephant cells and whale cells, in terms of their cancer protection. One thing we know is that they have a gene. Actually, we also have the same gene, but they have around 20 copies of that gene, more than humans. It’s called tumour suppressing gene 53, or TP53.
Elephants have around 20 copies of that gene, whereas humans have one only. That gene is mutated so commonly in human cancers. So, scientists think that this is why they don’t have cancer because they have that level of 20 extra protection by that gene, even though they are long living animals, which is quite fascinating.
Evolutionary, it’s not that clear why it multiplies that many times in elephants, not humans. But it could be quite interesting to know why. If we know why, maybe we can actually, you know, find some solutions for humans becoming resistant to cancer one day.
