Why is melanoma in people more malignant than in cattle?

Why is melanoma in people more malignant and deadly than in cattle? The researchers from the Yale's Systems Biology Institute found the answer in in the evolution of mammalian pregnancy.

“The scolars modified a group of genes in human fibroblast cells towards the genetic profile in cow cells, with the modified cells showing increased resistance to melanoma invasion.

The results demonstrate that differences in malignancy rates between species may, in part, be caused by species differences in the resistance of stromal cells against invasion,” Phys.org reported.

According to the study results, the higher metastatic potential of human cancers “may be a consequence of an evolutionary compromise, allowing for better fetus development at the expense of more deadly cancer outcomes later in life.”