Final answer:
Natural selection leads to the evolution of organisms based on heritable traits and differs between environments and diverse organisms. Rapidly dividing cancerous cells result from unregulated cell growth due to DNA damage and can evolve quickly, which is harmful to the host organism.
Step-by-step explanation:
Natural selection may differ between different environments and different organisms; because cancerous cells have faster generation times, they can evolve more quickly.
Cancer is a disease in which the cell cycle is deregulated, often due to DNA damage to critical genes that control cell division. This results in a loss of control over cell replication, leading to rapidly dividing cancer cells that can form tumors. Factors such as radiation or toxic chemicals can induce such DNA damage, thereby increasing the risk of cancer. Natural selection acts on this variation within a population, leading to the potential increase of alleles that grant a survival advantage, while alleles that are detrimental decrease in the population's gene pool.
However, in the context of cancer cells, natural selection can lead to the preferential survival and proliferation of cells that divide faster and escape the normal regulatory mechanisms, which is a detrimental process for the organism as a whole. As a result, cancerous cells can consume resources, invade tissues, and ultimately can cause the death of the individual.