Evolutionary biology of cancer

Cancer is driven by the somatic evolution of cell lineages that have escaped controls on replication and by the population-level evolution of genes that influence cancer risk. We describe here how recent evolutionary ecological studies have elucidated the roles of predation and this disciplinary crossover has begun to yield significant insights. Familiar natural selection involves variation in lifetime reproductive success among genetically variable indivi-duals, with adaptive genetic and phenotypic changes lat competition for resources, immunosurveillance and Review TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution Vol.20 No.10 October 2005signaling system components such as receptors and hormones Drift Stochastic changes in allele frequencies, owing t