Cancer treatment is a ‘double-edged sword’ by allowing survivors to pass on their tumour-causing genes, a leading scientist claims.
Study author Professor Maciej Henneberg from the University of Adelaide, said: ‘Besides the obvious benefits that modern medicine gives, it also brings with it an unexpected side-effect – allowing genetic material to be passed from one generation to the next that predisposes people to have poor health.
‘Because of the quality of our healthcare in western society, we have almost removed natural selection as the “janitor of the gene pool”.
‘The accumulation of genetic mutations over time and across multiple generations is like a delayed-death sentence.’
Countries with the most advanced healthcare systems have up to 14 times higher cancer rates as they are less vulnerable to the effects of natural selection, new research suggests.
Cancer patients should consider undergoing genetic engineering to ‘turn off’ their tumour-causing genes and prevent them being passed on to future generations, the researchers add.
Cancer treatment allows survivors to pass on their ‘tumour genes’, a leading scientist claims
‘We have removed natural selection’
Professor Maciej Henneberg said: ‘Modern medicine has enabled the human species to live much longer than would otherwise be expected in the natural world.
‘Besides the obvious benefits that modern medicine gives, it also brings with it an unexpected side-effect – allowing genetic material to be passed from one generation to the next that predisposes people to have poor health, such as type 1 diabetes or cancer.
‘Because of the quality of our healthcare in western society, we have almost removed natural selection as the “janitor of the gene pool”.
‘Natural selection in the past had an ample opportunity to eliminate defective genes introduced by mutations.
He said: ‘However, natural selection has been significantly reduced in the past 100 to 150 years, and the direct consequence of this process is that nearly every individual born into a population can pass genes to the next generation, while some 150 years ago, only 50 per cent or less of individuals had this chance.
‘Unfortunately, the accumulation of genetic mutations over time and across multiple generations is like a delayed death sentence.
‘Allowing more people with cancer genes [to] survive may boost cancer gene accumulation. Patients who survive it will have a chance to pass this predisposition to the next generation.’
How the research was carried out
The researchers analysed cancer data from 173 countries.
The 10 countries deemed to have the worst healthcare were Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi and Cameroon.
These nations were compared against the regions considered to have the best health services, which is made up of Iceland, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Cyprus and Andorra.
The researchers believe regions with the worst healthcare are more vulnerable to natural selection.
Cancer rates up to 14 times higher in developed countries
Results reveal rates of testicular cancer are 14 times higher in the regions with the best healthcare.
More advanced nations are also 12 times more at risk of lung cancer, 10 times of skin cancer and 6.5 times of brain cancer.
As well, pancreatic, prostate, leukemia, breast and ovarian forms of the disease are up to five times more prevalent in more developed countries.
The findings were published in the journal Evolutionary Applications.
Genetic engineering is required to ‘turn off’ cancer genes
Rather than just removing cancers, the researchers add patients should undergo genetic engineering that ‘turns off’ their tumour-causing genes.
Professor Henneberg added: ‘Assuming that the increasing genetic load underlies cancer incidence as one of the contributing factors, the only way to reduce it remains genetic engineering- repair of defective portions of the DNA or their blockage by methylation and similar approaches.
‘These techniques, though theoretically possible, are not yet practically available.
‘They will, however, need to be developed as they provide the only human-made alternative to the disappearing action of natural selection’.