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- Dawkins proposes autoimmune diseases could be the result of an evolutionary arms race between cancer and the immune system.
Richard Dawkins, a famous evolutionary biologist, thinks there is an evolutionary connection between cancer and the immune system. To paraphrase his work, autoimmune diseases are the result of the evolutionary arms race between the body and cancer cells. I'm not an immunologist nor a cancer biologist, but I've recently taken graduate level courses in the two subjects. There is a real evolutionary arms race between cancer and the immune system. The immune system has been evolving to recognize cancer cells that are constantly finding novel ways to evade being killed. There is a lot of research in the field of cancer biology and it can be quite a fascinating read. But, I don't know why Dawkins thinks autoimmune disease are caused by cancer and the immune system. Just curious if anyone has an idea?