Contagious cancers may be more common than expected - researchers from Columbia University have just discovered a third transmissible cancer, affecting soft-shell clams on the East Coast of North America. Clam disseminated neoplasia, a leukemia-like disease, has been known for years and was previously thought to be caused by a virus; but now it is clear that it is transmitted by the cancer cells themselves. To celebrate the discovery of a new infectious cancer, we tested out the clams in a local restaurant…
The full citation for the new paper is: Michael J. Metzger, C. Reinisch, J. Sherry, Stephen P. Goff, Horizontal Transmission of Clonal Cancer Cells Causes Leukemia in Soft-Shell Clams. Cell161, 255-263 10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.042