• Question: Is cancer equally fatal to animals as it is to humans, or are there animals that are more resistant to cancer (or less resistant)?

    Asked by isaacnewton123 to Amar, Ana, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 11 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by icecream19, naruto, boss06, tylerk.
    • Photo: Anastasia Wass

      Anastasia Wass answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      If animals get cancer then it affects them the same as us, it can kill them if they’re not treated. Some animals are less prone to getting cancer. As far as we know the naked mole rat doesn’t get cancer. There are cases of animals passing cancer to each other as an infectious disease. There’s a tumour in dogs that does this but it very rarely kills the dogs and their immune systems often get rid of it after a couple of months. There’s also a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils that’s killing alot of them as the tumours form around their mouths and stop them eating.

    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Sharks also have a very low rate of cancer, something to do with their immune system I believe…

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Currently in Tasmania, the Tasmanian devil (yes it’s a real animal) will be wiped out within 50 years due to an in curable cancer

    • Photo: Amar Joshi

      Amar Joshi answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Great question. Most animals humans have studied can have fatal cancers – most pets can get cancer.

      One of my most favourite animals is remarkable. The naked mole rat is amazing – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole_rat. They are mammals that live in a social colony like bees or ants. They have been studies quite extensively for the last 20-30 years and none of them have ever got cancer. We don’t know exactly why but people are trying to find out. Hope that helps!

    • Photo: Leah Fitzsimmons

      Leah Fitzsimmons answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Naked mole rates have lots of a gloopy liquid called HMM-HA in between all of their cells, which is thought to act like oil in a car – stopping their insides getting damaged when they rub together as they squash through tiny spaces underground. Some scientists think that this liquid stops the mole rats getting cancer, because cells from mole rats can become cancerous when you take the chemical away. Unfortunately it is currently impossible to get humans to make HMM-HA in their cells and even if we could – it might make our skin all loose and wrinkly like a mole rat!

      Most animals (like humans before we had good healthcare) die of other things before they get cancer (although there are exceptions like the Tasmanian devils and dogs mentioned above), but almost all animals that have been studied can get it.

Comments

  • Photo: isaacnewton123

    isaacnewton123 commented on :

    So,should we find the reason naked mole rats do not get affected by cancer, then we might be able to find a cure to cancer based on what we’ve found out?

    • Photo: Matt

      Matt commented on :

      Last year scientists did discover the reason why naked mole rats don’t get cancer. Their cells produce a ‘super sugar’ which stops cells forming tumours. Scientists have tried to see if they can get this super sugar into human cells but haven’t been successful, but should they work out how to do it, it could potentially be useful as a way to treat or prevent cancer

      • Photo: Amar

        Amar commented on :

        Matt – as far as I’m aware it is to with both sides of the signalling pathway.

        Mole rats do produce a lot of hyaluronic acid (the sugar) which we don’t. But they also have the necessary cell surface receptors too. We con’t have the required receptors in sufficient quantity for hyaluronic acid to work in humans. Hopefully scientist could find a different solution with the same anti-cancer effect.