Bigger animals consistently show higher prevalence of both benign and malignant tumors.
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Elephants, giraffes, pythons and other large species have higher cancer rates than smaller ones like mice, bats, and frogs, a new study has shown, overturning a 45-year-old belief about cancer in the animal kingdom.
The research, conducted by researchers from the University of Reading, University College London and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, examined cancer data from 263 species across four major animal groups — amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles. The findings challenge “Peto’s paradox,” a longstanding idea based on observations from 1977 that suggested there was no link between an animal’s size and its cancer risk.
