DailyDirt: Terrible Tumors

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

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]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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