In complex multicellular organisms such as humans, cancer cells can be viewed as cheaters that proliferate at the expense of the larger organism. If cancer cells are not successfully “policed” by healthy cells (and/or medical intervention), the results can be catastrophic.A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that in a similar fashion, the long-term fate of cooperator lineages can be threatened by neighboring cheater lineages in the same social group unless the cooperators are able to migrate away from cheaters or evolve to suppress them.
