Brian Johnson

7/20/16

Potential Mechanisms for Cancer Resistance in Elephants and Comparative Cellular

Response to DNA Damage in Humans

The researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and
Arizona State University along with Ringling Bros. Center for Elephants Conservation wanted to
find out why an animal as large as the Elephant would be less prominent to get cancer. They
believed that an animal as large as an elephant should be more likely to get cancer. So the
researchers decided to study the elephant and to see why and how it was able to avoid cancer so
much better than humans do. And with the information can one day help to fight or even prevent
cancer and move closer to these goals.
Researchers already know that our bodies fight cancer by using alleles (P53) to help find
cancer and stop it before it progresses. All animals have P53 and all animals can get cancer.
People of all ages and ethnicities get cancer and as you get older you become more prominent to
get cancer. This being because, as you get older your body needs to repair and make new cells
every day, this process called meiosis, is when most cancer starts. The researchers needed to find
out why an elephant, which is larger meaning it would go through meiosis more often, be less
likely to get cancer. To find out why elephants where less likely to get cancer, the researchers
used Necropsy data to find out that animal size and life spam did not increase with cancer
incidence. The cancer mortality rate for elephants was found to be less than 5% compared with

a cancer mortality rate for humans of 11% to 25%. (Abegglen LM, 2015) Next they used
elephant and human cells and damaged the DNA to see how the P53 alleles responded.
The research showed that compared to humans, elephants being a much larger animal had
nothing to do with them getting cancer. When they did the research on damaging the DNA, they
found that elephants would repair the DNA faster and more efficient than the human cells. This
being because the elephants cells had more P53 alleles and would go through P53 apoptosis
instead of DNA repair. The data suggest a lower threshold for DNA damage before triggering
p53-dependent apoptosis in elephants than in humans, a possible evolutionary strategy to avoid
cancer by efficiently removing mutant cells. (Abegglen LM, 2015)
The researchers hypothesis that, size would correlate with chance of cancer, was wrong
but only because the elephants had more P53, and would repair the DNA differently than humans
would. This research allowed the researchers the chance to see that the elephant was more
resistant to the chance of getting cancer. This being because of evolution and natural selection
and how the elephants DNA were built to fight cancer better with the help of more P53. With the
research scientist hope to one day is able to find ways to fight cancer or ways to prevent it.

Bibliography

Abegglen LM, Caulin AF, Chan A, et al. Potential Mechanisms for Cancer Resistance in
Elephants and Comparative Cellular Response to DNA Damage in
Humans.JAMA. 2015;314(17):1850-1860. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.13134.