Transmissable Cancer

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Oct 15, 2008 Views: 291

Hey scientists,

I'll admit I've never heard of this one before, and it is really scary stuff. I've heard of viruses causing cancer, but never of a tumor itself being able to spread from one animal to another. I guess this phenomenon is destroying the Tasmanian Devil population. Fatal face tumors are being spread (these animals often bite each other in the face). The article reports the devil's immune system may not recognize the foriegn tumor cells as foriegn because of a lack of MHC diversity. The author then goes on to tell a story of a surgeon who contracted a patient's cancer during surgery!

http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/cancer-of-the-devil/index.html

Here is the article.

Has anyone heard of this? Is anyone out there working on it?

Omai

Comments of this blog: 3 Comments Add Your Comment

parvoman said:

Doesn't this happen all the time in transplant surgery?

Posted on Oct 16, 2008 10:40 AM

Omai said:

I'm not sure parvoman. How often does a transplant contain cancerous tissue? I think the main issue for humans is immunosuppression. If a patients immune system is compromised, the new tumor will take hold.

Posted on Oct 16, 2008 10:47 AM

EdibK said:

The way it sounds, it seems that the Tasmanian devils are natural clones, at least as far as immunity is concerned. Of course, one can transmit cells from one cloned individual to another, they are biologically identical. If immunity is suppressed, tumors can grow in foreign bodies. However, in real world these are exceptional situations.

Posted on Oct 26, 2008 09:46 PM