This is the seventh video in a series focusing on the biology and treatment of breast cancer.

An antagonistic pleiotropy is a situation where a trait increases fitness early in life, but comes at a cost of reduced fitness later in life. Breast cancer (and all cancers) are quite obviously detrimental to human health. But... are there any circumstances where the genes and proteins associated with elevated cancer risk are ALSO associated with increased fitness during the human reproductive years? If so, then the persistence of some carcinogenic alleles in human populations MIGHT reinforced by an antagonistic pleitropy effect.

This video series explores the genetics, cell biology, evolution causes, treatment, and recurrence of breast cancer.

For more information on the biology of breast cancer, visit www.evo-ed.org.

Support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education program under Award No. DUE2020221