Just sharing a comment from Laurel Felsenfeld on Hans' post
...."Your post echoes what I learned in college in biological anthropology: cancer is what happens when the majority of humans stop dying before reproductive age. In other words cancer is the price we pay not succumbing to saber toothed tigers, famine, disease, and infections. Great book on the biology a d history of cancer diagnosis and treatment "Cancer--the Emperor of all Maladies"

I'll just share that the book she references, "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a NY Times Top 100 book of the century. Gonna give it a read. New edition has four new chapters on latest cancer research.

It sounds like cancer has been with us as long as there has been humans. A sad legacy, but we've come a long way.