[extropy-chat] [Biomed] Contagious Cancer

[Keith Henson]

At 03:58 PM 8/15/2006 -0700, Stuart LaForge wrote:
>Very bizarre. Turns out there is a communicable form
>of cancer in dogs that is not transmitted by a virus
>or other etiological agent but by the cancer cells
>themselves. Freaky. They are isolating tumors from
>dogs that do not belong to those dogs but to a dog or
>wolf that lived in Siberia between 250 and 2500 years
>ago. The tumor cells have essentially evolved
>(devolved?) from being components of a multicellular
>organism into bona-fide single-celled parasites.
>Fortunately, for now at least, its only in dogs but
>then again evolution never stops.
>
>http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060810_dog_cancer.html

Wow!

There is something related, human HeLA cells have contaminated cell 
cultures all over the world.

Keith Henson