Against the background that cancers are classified as non-communicable diseases, there is evidence to show now that cancers can be spread from one animal to another. This is the findings of the research published in the Nature journal, which was published on Thursday 23rd June 2016.
Scientists have found these contagious cancers in some sea animals such as Tasmanian devils and could spread from one animal to another through bites, as well as in dogs and soft shell clams.
According to a report on the mailonline, the latest study revealed that more species of shellfish were vulnerable to transmissible forms of cancer, and there was even evidence it could make the jump from one species to another.
The findings raise the possibility that contagious cancers might even be found in humans. The team that also carried out the research also references the rare case of an HIV positive man in Colombia who is believed to have contracted cancer from a tapeworm living inside his gut.
At the end of 2015, a medical journal reported acase study of the 41-year-old who died from cancerous tumours in his lungs, which are believed to have been passed to him by the parasite.
The authors write: ‘The recent report…highlights the possibility that transmissible tumours could arise in humans.’
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Not all tumours are cancerous as benign tumours do not spread to other parts of the body.
Over 100 cancers affect humans. An international team led by researchers at Columbia University in New York, found mussels and cockles collected in Spain and Canada had cancerous growths, called neoplasms, which can be passed from one animal to another through seawater.
Analysis showed that within each species, these cancers were started by cloned cancer cells which had a different DNA fingerprint to the host – indicating the cells had come from another animal.
They also found evidence of these transmissible cancer cells in another species of mollusc, golden shell carpet clams, doubling the previously known number of affected species from three to six – with four molluscs and two mammals.
