Schiff man specializes in treating children missing one of their TP53 gene's two alleles, which leads them to develop cancer. So after hearing Maley's talk, he wondered whether elephants held some biological insight that could help his patients. whether they could spare some elephant blood so that he could test how the p53 protein works in the mammals' white blood cells.
Using zoo autopsy records for 36 mammals — from striped grass mice to elephants — Schiff man's team recorded no relationship between body size and cancer rate. (Around 3% of elephants get cancer, according to the team’s analysis of hundreds of captive-elephant deaths).