Legacy Assumptions

Second contagious form of cancer found in Tasmanian devils

"Until now, we've always thought that transmissible cancers arise extremely rarely in nature, but this new discovery makes us question this belief," said Dr. Elizabeth Murchison, a researcher in the department of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, which confirmed the second form of cancer, in a press release. "Now that we have discovered that this has happened a second time, it makes us wonder if Tasmanian devils might be particularly vulnerable to developing this type of disease, or that transmissible cancers may not be as rare in nature as we previously thought."

I'll put twenty dollars on number two, please.   I am of the opinion that all ulcerative infections can become cancerous.  Some just do it faster than others.