Oxidative Stress and the Deep Evolutionary Roots of Cancer

There is a growing realization of the importance of oxygen in understanding cancer, combined with a serious effort to trace the evolutionary roots of cancer back to the dawn of multicellularity, and perhaps even to the dawn of oxygenic metabolism. Many tumor cells are hypoxic, and use glycolysis in favor of oxy-phosphorylation to metabolise. Whether this altered metabolism is a cause or consequence of cancer remains disputed. The way that healthy and cancer cells cope with reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as the response of cells to radiation damage, is also integral to the understanding cancer. By bringing together experts from cancer biology, astrobiology and evolutionary biology, we hope to develop a new line of inquiry in cancer research.