title: Transmissible Tumors: Breaking the Cancer Paradigm.
abstract: Transmissible tumors are those that have transcended the bounds of their incipient hosts by evolving the ability to infect another individual through direct transfer of cancer cells, thus becoming parasitic cancer clones. Coitus, biting, and scratching are transfer mechanisms for the two primary species studied, the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) and the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii). Canine transmissible venereal tumors (CTVT) are likely thousands of years old, and have successfully travelled from host to host around the world, while the Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) is much younger and geographically localized. The dog tumor is not necessarily lethal, while the devil tumor has driven the population to near extinction. Transmissible tumors are uniform in that they have complex immunologic profiles, which allow them to escape immune detection by their hosts, sometimes for long periods of time. In this review, we explore how transmissible tumors in CTVT, DFTD, and as well as the soft-shell clam and Syrian hamster, can advance studies of tumor biology.
authors.affiliation: National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, 50 South Drive, Building 50 Room 5351, Bethesda MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: eostrand@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Elaine A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ostrander
authors.affiliation: National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, 50 South Drive, Building 50 Room 5351, Bethesda MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Brian W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Science, 600W College Ave, College of Medicine, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
authors.forename: Gary K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Ostrander
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000635:transmission*; D004285:Dogs; D005153:Facial Neoplasms / Q000662:veterinary*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008394:Marsupialia; D008647:Mesocricetus; D049892:Mya; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*; D014685:Venereal Tumors, Veterinary
keywords: cancer; canine; clonal; devil; infectious; transmissible