Although research on cancer and bacterial resistance is at the forefront of evolutionary medicine, much remains to be done. Critics argue that despite a better understanding of evolutionary medicine theory, it is unclear to what extent this new knowledge can be applied in practice.
"The problem, I think, is the unbridled enthusiasm," says Hochberg, who also recently wrote an evolutionary medicine op-ed for Frontiers magazine. “I've rarely seen conversations that were really about logistics, profits, etc. associated with the transition from bank to clinic”; He says. "That's a whole different thing.
On the other hand, there is also intellectual friction. While Darwinian scientists may be overly enthusiastic, the public tends to be skeptical about these new theories. Evolutionary medicine alone won't cure anyone: it's a framework for thinking about medical questions
"Medicine is practiced by people who don't have a typical education in evolutionary biology," says Bernard Crespi, an evolutionary biologist at Simon Fraser University, who recently writes also on the frontiers of evolutionary medicine: "The greatest challenge is to bridge the gap between science, physician education and medical thinking in the context of the broader medical establishment of large pharmaceutical companies."
Gatenby believes that adaptive therapies, for example in cancer, require a change in the way we think about these diseases, for example by abandoning much of the terminology associated with war, such as 'battle' and 'fight'. for "destroying" the cancer - and thinking about the cure instead. It will take a lot of convincing, Gatenby says.
How evolutionary medicine will find a way to work with the pharmaceutical industry also remains a big question mark.
But Nesse, the man who started it all, claims that evolutionary medicine still has the power to ask new questions and new answers about disease.There is a gap between evolutionary biology and medicine that is actually detrimental to human health. – said Nesse. "It's a slow process, but science always wins."
