Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

blogs.discovermagazine.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 87 posts

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#11

Post by duskwuff »

pmoriarty wrote: post #5

"Mouse cells given extra copies of the p53 gene seemed to develop some cancer resistance, he said." I wonder if they could try putting it in to tasmanian devils, which have suffered enormous cancer rates recently.

The cancers you're thinking of in Tasmanian Devils are the result of a transmissible (!) tumor. The cancerous cells aren't the result of mutations within the animal's body, but instead are introduced into it from another infected animal. As such, genetic therapies are unlikely to have an effect.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#12

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

pmoriarty wrote: post #5

"Mouse cells given extra copies of the p53 gene seemed to develop some cancer resistance, he said." I wonder if they could try putting it in to tasmanian devils, which have suffered enormous cancer rates recently.

I live in Tasmania :)

That’s a great idea.

Also, I advocate to make endangered animals legal to keep as pets.

Look how successful cats and dogs are.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#13

Post by spaginal »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #4
datavirtue wrote: post #2

Because they aren't stuffing thier necks with sugar, pounds of meat, and dairy? Perhaps the reason they aren't ruining our climate either.

Well, it's either "pounds of meat and dairy" or "sugar", you need one or the other because humans can't feed on sunlight yet.

If you don’t eat, you won’t die of cancer clearly, starvation yes, but definitely not cancer.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#15

Post by bransonf »

gigatexal wrote: post #10

Could we use CRISPR to copy this gene more times in humans then?

Yea, we probably don’t want to do that. Over-expression has a tendency to compete with other regulatory genes, enabling the reverse of what we’d aim to achieve.

[0]http://m.cshperspectives.cshlp.org/content/2/2/a001107.full [1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/18812169/

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#16

Post by DoreenMichele »

duskwuff wrote: post #11
pmoriarty wrote: post #5

"Mouse cells given extra copies of the p53 gene seemed to develop some cancer resistance, he said." I wonder if they could try putting it in to tasmanian devils, which have suffered enormous cancer rates recently.

The cancers you're thinking of in Tasmanian Devils are the result of a transmissible (!) tumor. The cancerous cells aren't the result of mutations within the animal's body, but instead are introduced into it from another infected animal. As such, genetic therapies are unlikely to have an effect.

As such, genetic therapies are unlikely to have an effect.

Can you back that up somehow? That doesn't sound at all right to me.

Edit: For the upvote, downvote brigade -- with zero reply so far, but this comment has gone to zero and back to one umpteen times already -- I'm genuinely curious. This isn't some kind of gotcha question.

I have a genetic disorder. I have umpteen relatives who have had cancer. I actually have a serious vested interest in better understanding how this stuff works.

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#17

Post by dev_dull »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #12
pmoriarty wrote: post #5

"Mouse cells given extra copies of the p53 gene seemed to develop some cancer resistance, he said." I wonder if they could try putting it in to tasmanian devils, which have suffered enormous cancer rates recently.

I live in Tasmania :) That’s a great idea. Also, I advocate to make endangered animals legal to keep as pets. Look how successful cats and dogs are.

A Tasmanian devil though??!

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#18

Post by pmoriarty »

duskwuff wrote: post #11
pmoriarty wrote: post #5

"Mouse cells given extra copies of the p53 gene seemed to develop some cancer resistance, he said." I wonder if they could try putting it in to tasmanian devils, which have suffered enormous cancer rates recently.

The cancers you're thinking of in Tasmanian Devils are the result of a transmissible (!) tumor. The cancerous cells aren't the result of mutations within the animal's body, but instead are introduced into it from another infected animal. As such, genetic therapies are unlikely to have an effect.

Could you go in to more detail on why genetic therapies wouldn't work on a transmissible tumor? Aren't those tumors still affecting the genes in the cells and causing them to grow out of control?

Re: Elephants Rarely Get Cancer, Now We Know Why (2015)

#20

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

dev_dull wrote: post #17
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Tasmania :) That’s a great idea. Also, I advocate to make endangered animals legal to keep as pets. Look how successful cats and dogs are.

A Tasmanian devil though??!

Most medium sized, and above, dogs could bite your hand off no problem.

Ya’d need to keep them in an enclosure. They breed in captivity fine.[1]

I wonder if they could be bred to become house pets. Could take a while.

1. http://theconversation.com/tasmanian-devils-reared-in-captiv...

Post reply on HN