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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Arvid Ågren @arvidagren.bsky.social · 9d

Ernst Mayr and David Lack in Oxford 1966.

Mayr and Lack standing outside wearing academic gowns.

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · Aug 22

At #ESEB2025 Lisa Abbeglin presents data from the recent Cancer Prevalence across Vertebrates paper led by @zacharytcompton.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1158/2159...

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Trevor Graham @trevorgraham.bsky.social · Jul 8

Enjoyed this @natrevcancer.nature.com article on comparative oncology - how we can learn from other species 🐘🐋🦜🐍 about ways to prevent (& possibly treat) cancer. Both a review and a call to action for the research community. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @atjcagan.bsky.social @cmaley.bsky.social

Advancing cancer research via comparative oncology - Nature Reviews Cancer

Comparative oncology combines evolutionary biology, ecology, veterinary medicine and clinical oncology to better understand cancer, for example, by identifying the molecular and cellular mechanisms un...

www.nature.com

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · May 28

Just a few days left to apply for the Fall 2025 cohort of the
Arizona Cancer Evolution Center Scholars program. Great training in comparative oncology, cancer evolution, and science communication! Open to all, not just Arizona State students.

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · May 6

And their reply to our reply. I enjoyed their title. I propose that all future papers referring to Peto's Paradox must have a title playing on the word "paradoxical" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · May 6

Our reply to Butler et al's recent @pnas.org paper on Peto's Paradox. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Paradoxical indeed | PNAS

Paradoxical indeed

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Jeffrey Townsend @jeffreytownsend.bsky.social · Apr 25

Jeffrey Townsend (that's me!) presents on dismantling the coarse approximation of drivers and passengers in cancer at #AACR25.

Thank you @nlbigas.bsky.social for the photo!

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · Apr 25

"we demonstrate that a dog transmissible cancer has taken up and incorporated a large piece of DNA by horizontal transfer. This may have occurred through engulfment of fragments of a dying cell. Cancer is therefore not always entirely clonal"

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Apr 24

Dream team. Looking forward to our next project

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Arvid Ågren @arvidagren.bsky.social · Apr 24

What kind of conclusions can we draw from comparative oncology?

Zach has thought more about that issue than most and this was a really fun paper to work on together.

Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Apr 24

Is cancer suppression in and of itself an adaptation? The full version of our The Elephant & the Spandrel is now online. academic.oup.com/emph/article...

The Elephant and the Spandrel

Abstract. Comparative oncology has made great strides in identifying patterns of cancer prevalence and risk across the tree of life. Such studies have ofte

academic.oup.com

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Apr 24

Is cancer suppression in and of itself an adaptation? The full version of our The Elephant & the Spandrel is now online. academic.oup.com/emph/article...

The Elephant and the Spandrel

Abstract. Comparative oncology has made great strides in identifying patterns of cancer prevalence and risk across the tree of life. Such studies have ofte

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · Apr 22

Beata Ujvari, Andriy Marusyk and Aurora Nedelcu are organising a symposium on “Cancer in an evolutionary framework: across species and within individuals” at the @eseb2025.bsky.social conference in Barcelona this August. Abstact submission closes on Friday: eseb2025.com/call-for-abs...

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Kit Gallagher @kitcgallagher.bsky.social · Apr 9

Chasing Perfection - previous work to optimize adaptive therapy schedules for cancer rely on monitoring the patient continuously. We find that accounting for discrete clinical appointments across multiple tumor models motivates patient-specific personalization in optimal tx!

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Deriving Optimal Treatment Timing for Adaptive Therapy: Matching the Model to the Tumor Dynamics

Adaptive therapy (AT) protocols have been introduced to combat drug-resistance in cancer, and are characterized by breaks in maximum tolerated dose treatment (the current standard of care in most clin...

doi.org

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Mar 13

Great interviews with so many awesome collaborators. One takeaway that is relevant given recent studies: Even if larger animals do in fact get more cancer, it does not falsify Peto’s Paradox. Large animals do not get orders of magnitude more cancer. www.the-scientist.com/peto-s-parad...

Peto’s Paradox: How Gigantic Species Evolved to Beat Cancer

Scientists dive into the genomes of whales, elephants, and other animal giants looking for new weapons in the fight against cancer.

www.the-scientist.com

Reposted by Zachary Compton

Dr. Stefania Kapsetaki @steffikapsetaki.bsky.social · Mar 12

New study on diet, plasma glucose, and cancer prevalence across vertebrates published in Nature communications (@naturecomms.bsky.social) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.nature.com

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Feb 27

One more day to submit abstracts for ISEMPH talks! I am looking forward to hosting a symposium "The Future of Comparative Oncology" that will be paired with @evo-eco-onco.bsky.social's cancer evolution session.

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Feb 15

Reading Liam Revell & Luke Harmon's books on comparative phylogenetics, our team knew there would be important applications to comparative oncology --and the broader evolutionary medicine field. We explore these applications in our new preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Leveraging Comparative Phylogenetics for Evolutionary Medicine: Applications to Comparative Oncology

Comparative phylogenetics provides a wealth of computational tools to understand evolutionary processes and their outcomes. Advances in these methodologies have occurred in parallel with a surge in cr...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · Feb 15

Leveraging Comparative Phylogenetics for Evolutionary Medicine: Applications to Comparative Oncology https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.11.637459v1

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Feb 11

Walker Mellon getting ready to discuss some of the new comparative oncology projects we are focusing on this year! #SACB2025

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

E. Yağmur Erten @yagmurerten.bsky.social · Jan 21

Thank you all for the suggestions, I compiled them all here for the time being (might try to make something more stable than a google doc later), in case it is useful for anyone else: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

In the meantime, I will keep editing with new resources and recommendations!

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Elizabeth McKenna @elizsmckenna.bsky.social · Jan 14

The January issue of Cancer Discovery is now online! The cover features "Cancer Prevalance across Vertebrates" by @zacharytcompton.bsky.social and colleagues - read that and much more: aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov...

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Reposted by Zachary Compton

Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · Jan 13

Thanks, @zacharytcompton.bsky.social! It was fun to write—and glad to see your paper officially out, and with the cool cover!

Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Jan 13

@metzgerm.bsky.social wrote a wonderful Spotlight piece that accompanies the publication of our Cancer Discovery cover this morning. He highlights that our work opens as many exciting questions as it attempts to answer. aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov...

Peto’s Paradox Is Dead. Long Live Peto’s Paradox

Summary:. In this issue, Compton and colleagues report the prevalence of neoplasia and malignant cancer in 292 species, based on 16,049 necropsy records, shedding light on susceptibility to cancer and...

aacrjournals.org

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Jan 13

@metzgerm.bsky.social wrote a wonderful Spotlight piece that accompanies the publication of our Cancer Discovery cover this morning. He highlights that our work opens as many exciting questions as it attempts to answer. aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov...

Peto’s Paradox Is Dead. Long Live Peto’s Paradox

Summary:. In this issue, Compton and colleagues report the prevalence of neoplasia and malignant cancer in 292 species, based on 16,049 necropsy records, shedding light on susceptibility to cancer and...

aacrjournals.org

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Zachary Compton @zacharytcompton.bsky.social · Jan 10

Next week I kick off the semester of Cancer Prevention & Control seminars! I will recap findings from our recent Cancer Discovery publication and focus on the exciting future research that needs to be done in comparative oncology

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