Optimize Cancer Therapy using Evolution | Michael Levin & Robert Gatenby

Hi, I’m Aastha, and welcome to Live Longer World, where I interview scientists researching the frontiers of longevity science and write about health & longevity practices.

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“We can use the rule of evolution to optimize cancer therapy. The standard practice is that any therapy is given at maximum tolerated dose continuously until progression. It's almost a mantra that they have. Evolutionarily, you could hardly do it worse.” 

The current treatments on cancer do not account for how evolution works. Dr. Robert Gatenby has been studying evolutionary and game theory dynamics in the progression of cancer. He established the first cancer biology and evolutionary program in the U.S.

We can leverage this evolutionary information to provide more effective cancer treatment, which he discusses in this episode. Dr. Michael Levin is my co-host.

Timestamps below cover the topics discussed well.

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Timestamps:

0:00 – Cancer as Tissue Damage, Not Just Mutations

8:48 – How Evolution Supercharges Cancer Cell Fitness

11:04 – Debunking the “Primitive Cell” Myth

12:06 – The Herd Mentality of Cancer Cells

14:57 – Why Cancer Dynamics Go Beyond the Genome

22:27 – Networks and Information Flow Inside Cells

26:56 – Shared Goals: The Secret to Cellular Cooperation

29:55 – Genome = Hardware, Information = Software

36:26 – Healthy vs. Cancer Cells: Competing Information Systems

39:05 – Evolution Turns Harsh After Reproduction

41:03 – How Cancer Rewrites Its Own Information Playbook

43:07 – Adaptive Therapy: A Patient’s Guide

50:45 – The Limits of Adaptive Therapy

53:12 – Hunting for Better Cancer Biomarkers

55:11 – The Tumor Microenvironment’s Hidden Role

59:42 – Why We Must Look Beyond Genetic Data

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