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These mutant cacti suggest that there are better ways to battle cancer

A garden of unusual-looking desert plants has been assembled to remind us that the most aggressive fight isn’t always best.

4 min to read
bloom

In the deserts of Arizona, a cancer-like growth fans out from the head of a saguaro cactus. It is a fasciation: a bunch of cells replicating out of control. This phenomenon produces strange mutations in plant life, but like cancer in humans, it can take a toll. While beautiful, this deformity disrupts flowering and makes the cactus more vulnerable to injury.

The Arizona Cancer Evolution Center’s garden, which it has dubbed Endless Forms Most Beautiful from a Charles Darwin quote, is full of cancerous cacti. Athena Aktipis, a professor in psychology at Arizona State University, brought them here as a reminder: we are not alone in our struggle with cancer. And someday, we might yet get better results from learning to live with it than trying to wipe it out.

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