Wildlife cancer: a conservation perspective

McAloose, Denise; Newton, Alisa L.

doi:10.1038/nrc2665

Cited by 168 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 135 publications

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“…Future research should include tumour lineage dynamics within an evolutionary epidemiological analytical framework, as well as assessing variation in host tolerance to different DFTD genetic variants under different ecological or immunological conditions. Transmissible clonal cancers in wildlife have only recently been recognized as a threat to biodiversity conservation [12,43], including both direct effects on species decline and the trophic cascades that result from the loss of keystone species and ecological functions, such as is occurring in Tasmania with the severe decline of its top mammalian predator [44]. The Tasmanian devil's facial tumour disease is a new transmissible cancer that we have studied in the wild almost since its emergence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils: localized lineage replacement and host population response

et al. 2015

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Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is a clonally transmissible cancer threatening the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) with extinction. Live cancer cells are the infectious agent, transmitted to new hosts when individuals bite each other. Over the 18 years since DFTD was first observed, distinct genetic and karyotypic sublineages have evolved. In this longitudinal study, we investigate the associations between tumour karyotype, epidemic patterns and host demographic response to the disease. Reduced host population effects and low DFTD infection rates were associated with high prevalence of tetraploid tumours. Subsequent replacement by a diploid variant of DFTD coincided with a rapid increase in disease prevalence, population decline and reduced mean age of the population. Our results suggest a role for tumour genetics in DFTD transmission dynamics and epidemic outcome. Future research, for this and other highly pathogenic emerging infectious diseases, should focus on understanding the evolution of host and pathogen genotypes, their effects on susceptibility and tolerance to infection, and their implications for designing novel genetic management strategies. This study provides evidence for a rapid localized lineage replacement occurring within a transmissible cancer epidemic and highlights the possibility that distinct DFTD genetic lineages may harbour traits that influence pathogen fitness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils: localized lineage replacement and host population response

et al. 2015

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“…This knowledge is best developed in the veterinary literature on domestic animals, for which virtually all examples of infectious causes of cancer involve viral aetiologies [2]. Although the literature on cancer in wild vertebrates is much less complete, the current state of knowledge implicates a disproportionate involvement of viruses relative to other pathogens ( [53,54]; table 2).…”

Section: Infectious Cancers In Vertebrates (A) Historical Trendmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sea turtle fibropapillomatosis, which is caused by an alpha herpesvirus, for example, is more prevalent in areas subject to pollution from human activities [135,136], although a variety of correlates of human activity could be causally involved [135]. Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls are elevated in the blubber of genital carcinomas of sea lions induced by a gammaherpesvirus [53,137]. Polychlorinated biphenyls have been classified as carcinogens but also have immunosuppressive effects [138].…”

Section: Environmental Pollutants Infection and Control Of Cancermentioning

confidence: 99%

Infection and cancer in multicellular organisms

Ewald

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Evolutionary considerations suggest that oncogenic infections should be pervasive among animal species. Infection-associated cancers are well documented in humans and domestic animals, less commonly reported in undomesticated captive animals, and rarely documented in nature. In this paper, we review the literature associating infectious agents with cancer to evaluate the reasons for this pattern. Non-malignant infectious neoplasms occur pervasively in multicellular life, but oncogenic progression to malignancy is often uncertain. Evidence from humans and domestic animals shows that non-malignant infectious neoplasms can develop into cancer, although generally with low frequency. Malignant neoplasms could be difficult to find in nature because of a low frequency of oncogenic transformation, short survival after malignancy and reduced survival prior to malignancy. Moreover, the evaluation of malignancy can be ambiguous in nature, because criteria for malignancy may be difficult to apply consistently across species. The information available in the literature therefore does not allow for a definitive assessment of the pervasiveness of infectious cancers in nature, but the presence of infectious neoplasias and knowledge about the progression of benign neoplasias to cancer is consistent with a widespread but largely undetected occurrence.

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“…The existence of contagious cancer is well known among dogs and other canines, [8] Tasmanian devils, [9] Syrian hamster, [10,11] sea lions (genital carcinoma), sea turtles (fibropapillomatosis), beluga whales, bottom-dwelling fish [12,13] and so on. Venereal cancer of dogs is usually transmitted when dogs mate, resulting in the direct physical intrusion of viable cancerous matter from an afflicted dog to a healthy one.…”

Section: Origin and Transmissibility Of Animal Cancermentioning

confidence: 99%

Human cancer is transmitted via genome

Rumyantsev¹

2013

OJGen

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Recent discredit of "somatic mutation" hypotheses forced the need of new paradigms about the nature of human cancer. The present article is devoted to further development of one such paradigm: the hypothesis of invasive parasitic nature, origin, evolution, pathogenesis and transmission of human cancer. Development was performed by supplementing and supporting the hypothesis by data which could not be applied before. The supplementation included integrative reconsidering, and reinterpretation of the make-ups, traits and processes existing not only in human cancer but also in animal cancers. Special attention has been focused on xenogamous intrusion of carcinogenic traits in the genome of a host. It was evidenced that human cancer possesses the same set of traits characteristic of transmissible animal cancer. In contrast to animal cancer formed of solitary cell lineage, human cancer consists of a couple of lineages constructed under different genetic regulations and performed different structural and physiological functions. The diversity of cancer composition remains stable over sequential propagation. The subsistence of human cancer regularly includes obligatory rotation alternation of its successive forms including genomic, gametic, zygotic, micro-population and tumorous ones. Human cancer possesses its own biological watch and the ability to gobble its victim, transmit via the intrusion of the genome, perform intercommunications within the tumor components and between the dispersed subunits of cancer.

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Wildlife cancer: a conservation perspective

Cited by 168 publications

References 135 publications

Transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils: localized lineage replacement and host population response

Transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils: localized lineage replacement and host population response

Infection and cancer in multicellular organisms

Human cancer is transmitted via genome

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