Transmissible cancers -- cancers which can spread between individuals by the transfer of living cancer cells -- are believed to arise extremely rarely in nature. One of the few known transmissible cancers causes facial tumours¹ in Tasmanian devils, and is threatening this species with extinction². Today, scientists report the discovery of a second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils. The discovery, published in the journal Proceedings³ of the National Academy of Science, calls into question our current understanding of the processes that drive cancers to become transmissible. Tasmanian devils are iconic marsupial⁴ carnivores that are only found in the wild on the Australian island state of Tasmania. The size of a small dog, the animals have a reputation for ferocity as they frequently bite each other during mating and feeding interactions.

 

In 1996, researchers observed Tasmanian devils in the north-east of the island with tumours affecting the face and mouth; soon it was discovered that these tumours were contagious⁵ between devils, spread by biting. The cancer spreads rapidly throughout the animal's body and the disease usually causes the death of affected⁶ animals within months of the appearance of symptoms. The cancer has since spread through most of Tasmania and has triggered widespread devil population declines. The species was listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2008.

 

To date, only two other forms of transmissible cancer have been observed in nature: in dogs and in soft-shell clams⁷. Cancer normally occurs when cells in the body start to proliferate⁸ uncontrollably; occasionally, cancers can spread and invade the body in a process known as 'metastasis'; however, cancers do not normally survive beyond the body of the host from whose cells they originally derived⁹. Transmissible cancers, however, arise when cancer cells gain the ability to spread beyond the body of the host that first spawned¹⁰ them, by transmission of cancer cells to new hosts. 

 

Now, a team led by researchers from the University of Tasmania, Australia, and the University of Cambridge, UK, has identified a second, genetically¹¹ distinct transmissible cancer in Tasmania devils. 

 

"The second cancer causes tumours on the face that are outwardly indistinguishable from the previously-discovered cancer," said first author Dr Ruth Pye from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania. "So far it has been detected in eight devils in the south-east of Tasmania."

 

"Until now, we've always thought that transmissible cancers arise extremely rarely in nature," says Dr Elizabeth Murchison from the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, a senior author on the study, "but this new discovery makes us question this belief.

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