Scientists discover new contagious form of cancer

October 7, 2019  12:28

Scientists from the US have studied cancer, which can be transmitted from one organism to another. The contagious cancer in question threatens only mollusks, however, researchers note that other species have similar diseases, Planet Today reported.

Infectious oncological diseases are known to science. This is cancer that is sexually transmitted in dogs, as well as cancer, which Tasmanian devils infect each other with bites. The latter were on the verge of extinction precisely because of this disease.

The contagious form of cancer, common among gastropod bivalves, was at first mistaken for a mysterious virus, but researchers at Columbia University in New York, led by Stephen Goff, found it to be an oncological disease.

We are talking about contagious leukemia. Science has not yet encountered such diseases, so the study of the contagious cancer of gastropods is a very important task. Observations of the mollusk Polititapes aureus show that some malignant cells can adapt to a foreign organism, which can genetically differ quite a lot from them. It's just unbelievable, but it's a fact we are dealing with, Goff said.

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