The Cheating Cell

By Athena Aktipis,

Book cover of The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer

Book description

A fundamental and groundbreaking reassessment of how we view and manage cancer

When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don't necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked because the historical processes that created life also created cancer. The Cheating Cell delves into this extraordinary…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Cheating Cell as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Cheating takes place in all organisms at all levels.

This book takes readers to cheating at the cell level, particularly cancer cells. It demonstrates to readers how cancer cells take the path of going rogue, refusing to die as they are preprogramed.

In light of this, fighting cancer is essentially fighting cells that defy their fate by cheating. This introduces a fresh strategy for tackling cancer.

From Lixing's list on science in behavior and evolution.

When I interviewed Athena as part of the research for my own book Rebel Cell, I was immediately struck by the way in which she saw deeper, broader connections across the worlds of cancer research, behavioral science, and philosophy. From the strange, knobbly cactuses that she cultivates outside her office to the misbehaving cells in a deadly tumor, Cheating Cell is a fascinating journey through the origins and evolution of cancer from the perspective of a researcher at the cutting edge of the field.

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