In today's growing medical field, there appears to be no obstacle that science has yet to overcome. During our visits to the doctor or hospital, we explain our symptoms and, sure enough, a few minutes later we leave with a prescription in hand. However, recently the fight against cancer has become more difficult because the means to treat and cure patients have been significantly reduced. Cancer has become the biggest medical mystery due to inconclusive facts about the disease that remain unsolved. As a result, treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy are less and less effective and it is becoming increasingly clear that cancer is driven by the selective pressure of natural selection. That's why many scientists and researchers have begun to view cancer through an evolutionary and ecological lens, expanding the perspectives that research advances and bringing society closer to a cure. The application of evolution and ecology to cancer is already helping us to better understand, predict and control this disease (Merlo 933.) Being able to look at cancer with a different perspective and approach can lead to countless discoveries and a better understanding of mutant cells. which have the ability to replicate and kill very quickly. Studies of cancer biology through evolution and ecology have provided insights from research and have profound implications in understanding why current cancer treatments fail and how radically new therapies could now appear. Historically, very little attention has been paid to evolutionary biology and understanding the control of neoplasm cell progression. Tumor cells are constantly growing through natural selection, and many are thought to continue to evolve as they reproduce. May...... middle of paper ......fferent; simply, the rate of reproduction of an organism is much slower than that of a cell. This is why cancer tends to grow so quickly. The irony of cellular selection is that although the cell evolves to the benefit of its evolutionary fitness, this occurs at the expense of the individual. As “Another Perspective on Cancer” further explains, “…cancer cells have an advantage over other cells in the body, but are at a disadvantage to the body. Selection at the cellular level could end up hindering the organism's survival reproduction, acting in exactly the opposite direction to selection at the individual level (____2.) » Works Cited Merlo, Lauren MF, John W. Pepper, Brian J. Reild and Carlo C. Maley. “Cancer as an evolutionary and ecological process.” Rev. of the evolutionary theory of cancer. Nature Publishing Group 6 (2006): 924-33. Elite academic research. Web.