DailyDirt: Terrible Tumors

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Oct 31st 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Radiolab had a fascinating episode on famous tumors that aired recently (again). Cancer is usually a pretty grim topic, but there are some incredibly interesting facets of cancer if you can forget about its lethal nature. If you haven't known anyone who has battled cancer, consider yourself lucky. But cancer is a leading cause of death, so it may be unavoidable to encounter this disease at some point in your life. In the meantime, here are just a few tidbits about tumors that you might not have seen.

The family of Henrietta Lacks has come to an agreement with the National Institutes of Health on how the genome data from HeLa cells should be distributed. Hela cells are cancer cells from Henrietta Lacks that are a de facto standard in biotechnology, but genomic data from these cells also contain genetic information on all of her descendants. [url]
In Australia, devil facial tumor disease is a contagious form of cancer that is killing off Tasmanian devils at concerning rate. The Tazmanian devil could be extinct in a few decades, but a vaccine against this cancer could be available in time to save these animals. [url]
Canine transmissible venereal tumor (CTVT) may be the oldest known cancer -- estimated to have originated between 200 and 2,500 years ago in a single animal. CTVT is a common, non-lethal cancer that has spread to all dog breeds all over the world -- and its existence raises questions about the nature of cancer and how cancer evolves. [url]

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Filed Under: biotech, cancer, canine transmissible venereal tumor, contagious, ctvt, devil facial tumor disease, hela, henrietta lacks, tasmanian devil, tumors
Companies: nih

3 Comments

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Wally (profile), 31 Oct 2013 @ 9:55pm

I'm surprised Ohio's Riverside Methodest Hospital isn't mentioned..My father got a cancer of the appendix involving malignant carcinoma with mucinin...it webbs the tissue surface of his organs like the Zerg have that goup they must use to grow on to spread...
Anyway, my dad got a very new procedure that only 4 hospitals in the world perform...Hot Chemo Bath...
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Oct 2013 @ 10:30pm

Tasmanian Devils
Tassie Devils will probably go extinct in the wild -- but there are lots of disease-free breeding populations in captivity.
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Ninja (profile), 1 Nov 2013 @ 1:57am

Re: Tasmanian Devils
I wonder. If the causes of the cancer are natural then it's simply natural selection doing its wonders or a man-induced issue. If the former then we should let it be. This is the same as humans fighting fires in forests where the trees themselves are hardwired to 'promote' widespread fires (their leaves are highly combustible naturally and they won't die from the fire). The question is how do you determine if it is man-induced?
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