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Contagious Cancer Found in Dogs
Dan East writes "Scientists in England have gathered definitive evidence that a kind of cancer in dogs, known as Sticker's sarcoma, is contagious. It is spread by tumor cells getting passed from dog to dog through sex or from animals biting or licking each other. Robin Weiss and his colleagues did genetic studies on the tumor cells from 40 dogs with Sticker's sarcoma, collected from five continents, which showed that all the tumor cells are clones of each other. The parent cell probably arose in a domesticated dog of Asian origin — perhaps a husky — hundreds of years ago, and perhaps more than 1,000 years ago. A similarly transmissible cancer has recently been discovered spreading through populations of Tasmanian devils."
Great! Now I have to give my dogs a talking-to about using protection before they go to the doggie park!
I wonder if they will start having puppy prophylactics in a candy dish at pet-smart.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV#Cancer
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oh wait....
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"We had a chance with aids, but we blew it."
You can say that again.
Where were you when the voynix came?
unfortunately this kind of cancer is not new, here in Australia, the Tasmanian devil are diying and will soon disapear. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/02 27_060227_tasmanian.html
So, all tumor cells are clones of each other and not related to the dog. How is this cancer? Isn't it just a regular pathogen then?
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And it doesn't seem that human to human cancer transmission is impossible, too. This could be the next big thing once we've cured AIDS.
How common is Sticker's sarcoma, though? We have a dog, and although she's not getting to fuck like a rabbit, dogs often lick each other and sometimes bite.
A 9 year old Border Collie with an aggressive tumor in her front leg. This happened two weeks ago. She spent a lot of time playing with other dogs in the park. I'd hate to think that me wanting my dog to have some fun is what killed her. I'd hate to have to wonder and worry about this with my next dog.
Perhaps this will turn out to be a partial explanation for the "cancer clusters" you read about every now and then. Varka
... in the sense that these are not the dogs' own cells. This is much more like the dog being a petri dish for a parasitic cell that's being physically passed along, almost like bacteria. The cells just set up shop in the new dog's tissues.
Slightly annoying, in TFA, is the notion that "DNA will try anything to reproduce itself." That might want to read more like "just about everything happens to DNA as it's cloned, and sometimes the mutations work better, and sometimes they fail." There's nothing worse than anthropomorphizing your description of cellular mechanics.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
My understanding was that normal cancers survive in the body because they're part of its own tissue, and are recognized by the immune system as normal body cells. If, as the article says, this sarcoma really is transmitted via the cancer cells themselves (as opposed to an infectious cancer-causing agent like a virus), then shouldn't the infected dog's immune system recognize the cells as coming from another dog and attack them?
Tasmanian Devils are being wiped out by a transmissable cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease, its a pretty hideous disease that eventually causes the animals to starve to death as they are unable to eat. It is transmitted when Tasmanian Devils fight each other. It is estimated 100% fatal within 12-18 months, it is estimated that over half of all remaining Tasmanian Devils in the wild have it, and it has decimated their population.
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
For that matter, how the hell are these foreign cells growing **whole tumours** in the host without the host's immune system going into complete overdrive?
I mean, it's hard to even transplant a finger in a human without using huge amounts of anti-rejection drugs. How is there a tumor growing inside the dog, with cells that must have a totally different DNA and chromosone pattern? Why is the dog's host system not attacking it?
I mean, part of the whole problem with cancer is that the cells are in fact your own cells, so your body never attacks the infection. But if the cancer is directly contagious than this is not the case at all.
...not to lick your dog's backside.
"E pur si muove!" - attributed to Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642
FTA:
..the cells are not genetically related to the dogs they are in -- proof that they did not arise from the dogs' own cells.
..all the tumor cells, no matter where they were collected, are clones of each other.
A cancer cell is usually an animal's or person's own cell..
If every cell of this cancer is a clone, and not the dog's own cells screwing up, then I'd say this is more like an infection. An alien organism has invaded the dog's body and then replicates. What's the difference (in terms of the vector) between this and a bacterial infection (also single-celled)?
teach your kids the dangers of red rocket
...then I'm leaving the planet. This was all predicted in the original Planet of the Apes movies...
This is just great. This is worse that prions.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
I see that you have never owned a cat or dog. It can be a very rewarding experience, caring for something like that.
Having said that, I agree with your views about how some people seem to value the lives of animals over other human beings.
I saw a commercial once that truly sickened me. They were asking for donations to help save captive bears in an empoverished third world country! I couldn't believe that someone could ask for money to save bears, instead of helping the PEOPLE that couldn't afford enough food. The bears were being held captive to be put on display to earn donations from passers-by, and I thought, "How stupid can this donation organization be! Solve the people problem, and you also solve the bear problem!"
Animal rights groups sicken me sometimes.
Unlike porn, which yada yada rimshot hey-ooh!
The dogs said that it was a "Ruff" deal...
The Tasmanian Devils just spun around quickly, said something completely incomprehensible and blew a rasberry...
Summation 2
These tumor cells will grow in any dog. It would be interesting to see if they will infect closely related species. Will they grow in wolves, coyotes, jackals, etc.? Are there any breeds of dogs which are immune to these tumor cells? Will they grow in prey bitten by a dog, such as rabbits? One possible use for these tumor cells could be to determine how closely other species are related to dogs.
----------------
Steve Stites
A Readable Technical Discussion of Stickers Sarcoma and Canine TVT - 2004 to Congress.
Excerpt on Geographical Distribution from the latter: TVT is seldom or no more detected in North and Central Europe and in North America, mainly due to the population control of stray animals, the preventive pre-breeding examination and the effective treatment of clinical cases. With a few exceptions, TVT remains endemic in the rest of the world, obviously because of the uncontrolled population of stray dogs and the inadequacies of exerting effective treatments.
which is single-celled, asexual and an obligate parasite of dogs.
Contagious cancer? As if I didn't have a million reasons to stay a pasty, game-addicted, furtive and nervous agoraphobe. If it can happen to our canine brothers, it can happen to us.
the mods may say you posted flamebait, but to me it's a flame that warms my heart. rock on, brother! --chebucto
This story has a lot of implications that aren't necessarily obvious. First, if both dogs and marsupials can have a contageous, directly-transmissable cancer, then so can any species, through ANY mechanism that involves a transfer of cells. I wonder if blood banks are being screened for such cancers. Given the total lack of speed they showed over AIDS or vCJD, I seriously doubt they've got any serious monitoring in place for such pathogens. (Sure, it's a theoretical, but it would seem better to KEEP it a theoretical, rather than wait until it's a major problem.)
Since this was presumably two different spontaneous mutations, transmissable cancer must be capable of arising in almost any organism at almost any time. I doubt there would be many carcinogens in common between Alaska and Australia, despite them having the same first and last letters. Understanding that mechanism would seem very important, as it would seem reasonable to assume that anything that easy to start would be equally easy to stop.
Finally, for the cancer to spread in the way described, we must be talking about cells with a high degree of mobility. This can't be something attached to something, like a tumour, or it couldn't spread identically from organism to organism. It must also be fragile enough that an airborne version has not yet evolved. However, that may be merely a matter of time. I think medical labs should be putting the effort into understanding the mechanisms and the limitations of transmissable cancers, as we really don't want to be in the usual mess of playing catch-up afterwards, but don't need to do more than necessary if research shows that the limitations are barrier enough.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I sure wish I had known that before I shelled out $10,000. Don't get me wrong. My dog was worth every penny. But it sure would have been better to know beforehand that there was absolutely zero chance of him surviving cancer.
The main problem is the lack of animal cancer research. The good doctors who treated my dog (and he had an entire team of surgeons and specialists) tried very hard, but they just don't have enough information. Doggies don't respond to chemo like humans do, and they don't respond to radiation like we do. The doctors have to play extreme guessing games with each patient. It's all trial-and-error.
Before he passed, dear old Blooba donated a sample of his blood for research purposes. He always was a generous soul.
2. I'd choose bark park with a 3/4 life span vs. no fun for a long time and all the other dogs I know agree.
Sshhh! Sshh! What are you doing? On the internet, no one's supposed to know that you're a dog!
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