Why aren’t clonally transmissible rumors ubiquitous? If they occur by nose contact in Tasmanian devils, why not by skin contact in most animals (including humans)? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonally_transmissible_cancer …
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Replying to @The_Lagrangian
1) Cancer cells start as ordinary cells (thus by definition recognized by host immune system), and undergo constant selection to avoid the host's specific immune system as they mutate. Very unlikely to escape an entirely different immune system, bc no selection pressure.
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Replying to @St_Rev @The_Lagrangian
2) Very unlikely to have opportunities for transmission, particularly non-skin cancer, thus no pressure to be transmissible. cf. the surgeon who caught a patient's cancer via an errant scalpel.
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Replying to @St_Rev @The_Lagrangian
Tasmanian devils bite the fucking shit out of each other constantly. Constant wound-to-wound contact = opportunity for deep tissue transmission. Humans don't do anything like that.
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Replying to @St_Rev
Adam Strandberg Retweeted Adam Strandberg
Humans do have sex thoughhttps://twitter.com/the_lagrangian/status/1127202658354376706?s=21 …
Adam Strandberg added,
Adam Strandberg @The_Lagrangian“[Canine Transmitted Venereal Tumor] represents the oldest known malignant cell in continuous propagation, and challenges the concept of increasing genome instability in cancer progression.” why not cats? Or anything that has sex for that matter? http://www.retrovirology.com/content/3/S1/S92 …Show this thread1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
Yes, that's the only other likely route, but less likely than wound-to-wound contact. The fact that pregnancy resembles sexually transmitted cancer on an immunological level might make the real thing less likely! Hard to say.
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Replying to @St_Rev @The_Lagrangian
Regardless, one can say that transmissible cancers exist but new ones have the odds stacked very high against them.
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. Banned in Sweden. SubGenius, Zhuangist, white-hat troll. Defrocked mathematician. Brain problems.