Why Elephants Don't Get Cancer

Why Elephants Don't Get CancerTop of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 1, Episode 175, Segment 3

Nov 9, 2015 • 15m

Guest: Joshua Schiffman, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Adjunct Professor of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah Here’s a scientific mystery to chew on - Elephants have 100 times as many cells as humans. So, it would be reasonable to assume that their chance of having any cell turn cancerous is 100 times more likely than a human’s. But turns out that elephants rarely get cancer. Recently, researchers have been trying to figure out why, hoping the elephants might provide an answer that could help far-more-cancer-prone humans.

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