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Galapagos tortoises use their self-destructing cells to avoid cancer

By Claire Ainsworth

20 July 2021

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

A Galapagos giant tortoise

Shutterstock/FOTOGRIN

Galapagos giant tortoises are long-lived in part because their cells are surprisingly sensitive to certain forms of stress. As well as informing research into human medicine, the finding reveals how animals have evolved different ways to resist cancer and ageing.

There’s lots of different ways to get to a large body and a long, healthy lifespan,” says at the University at Buffalo, New York.

We would expect large animals to be more susceptible to cancer because they have a greater number of cells, each of which has a small chance to become cancerous.…

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