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A new study has revealed that the mystery contagious dog cancer that plagues dogs throughout the world could be the first transmittable cancer.

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Research has shown cancer cells are transmitted directly from dog to dog and act as parasites on each infected canine. “Canine transmissible Venereal tumour” (CTVT) is caught between dogs through the exchange of bodily fluids that involve sexual contact, licking and biting.

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Canine transmissible venereal tumour is thought to infect dogs around the world and is suspected to have originated from a single wolf (or from a dog that is closely linked to a wolf) that lived between 250 and 100 years ago.

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Previously, it was thought the spread of CTVT was started by small viruses, in the same way human papilloma virus (found in genital warts) spreads cervical cancer to women through sex. However, a new genetic study shows that the canine cancer cells are direct descendents of tumour cells from a long dead animal in which the disease originated from.

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Leading researcher Robin Weiss from University College London said- “The cancer escaped the original body and became a parasite that transmitted from dog to bitch and bitch to dog until it colonised all over the world. The idea that this is caused by transfer of the cancer cells themselves, not a cancer-causing virus, has been around for 30 years and now we have proved it through forensic DNA analysis”

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Weiss also said that the discovery of this cancer, otherwise also known as Sticker’s sarcoma “the oldest cancer known to science”, and maybe the worlds longest lived colony of cloned mammalian cells.

We-iss and his colleagues analysed samples of blood from 16 unrelated canines from five different continents, all of which had cancer and thus the following discovery came to light:

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• The cancer cells all originated from a common ancestor cell and not from the dogs themselves. Comparing both of the cancer DNA and with dog DNA from reference samples held by the USA Kennel Club and Crufts showed that it most likely had started at least 250 years ago from a wolf or an old Asian dog breeze such as a husky or a Shih Tzu and then spread panademically amongst other dogs.

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The cancer does not usually kill infected dogs. But Weiss said “If an old mangy stray contracts the cancer, they would usually die”.

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Any tumours that form in a healthy dog usually disappear after a few months due to an efficient immune system. But some cells survive and the cancer contracts to an uninfected dog.

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There are similar cancers that are endangering the lives of Tasmanian Devils, a carnivorous marsupial who are now slowly becoming to the point of extinction by at least a third since the 1990s. The factor towards this is the spread of unsightly and often fatal facial cancers which is spread by biting one another.

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Although dog cancer cells have heavily disrupted chromosomes, it seems as though they have ceased to multiply and become stable. Some may think this is contradictive to the “fact” that cancer cells always become more aggressive.

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