[extropy-chat] Contagious Cancer

[Keith Henson]

At 09:57 AM 8/22/2006 -0700, J. Andrew Rogers wrote:

>On Aug 17, 2006, at 9:34 AM, Martin Striz wrote:
> > On 8/17/06, J. Andrew Rogers <andrew at ceruleansystems.com> wrote:
> >> This reminds me of a small and somewhat remote town ("small" = ~500
> >> people) I lived in growing up, that had a number of instances of the
> >> same kind of fatal cancer over a couple year period.  A few
> >> government agencies took a keen interest but after exhaustive studies
> >> could find no plausible environmental factors (e.g. contaminants)
> >> that could explain how so many people in such  a small population
> >> could develop the same kind of cancer at roughly the same time.  And
> >> it disappeared as abruptly as it had come.  It would seem that the
> >> spontaneous formation of a contagious cancer could reasonably explain
> >> that pattern, though at the time people would have thought you were
> >> crazy to suggest such a thing was even possible.
> >
> > What type of cancer was it?
>
>I have no idea.  I was a kid at the time, and would not remember now
>even if I had been told.  The only reason I know about it is that it
>seriously concerned my parents and the other adults in the town at
>the time.  I did not think much of it at the time, but it was strange
>enough to be memorable.

You might write the dog cancer researchers and mention at least the town 
and year this happened.

It is possible tissue samples were saved, and modern genotyping could see 
if the cancers were not "native" to the people who got them.

It would sure be a shocker.  It is even possible that defending against 
cancers from other people is why we reject transplants.

Keith Henson