Second contagious form of cancer found in Tasmanian devils

(University of Cambridge) Transmissible cancers are believed to arise extremely rarely in nature. One of the few known transmissible cancers causes facial tumors in Tasmanian devils, and is threatening this species with extinction. Today, scientists report the discovery of a second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils. The discovery, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, calls into question our current understanding of the processes that drive cancers to become transmi...