• Question: How common is cancer in animals

    Asked by Daniel to Zena, Jared, Isabel, Ian, Frank on 13 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Isabel Pires

      Isabel Pires answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      All animals have the possibility to develop cancer, since all cells have the possibility to get mutations that can make cancer happen.

      However, as cancer is a disease (or group of diseases) which is linked with ageing, means that most animals, which normally don’t live beyond than their natural life span, don’t tend to get cancer as much as humans do. Remember, up to the middle ages, the life span of a human was only about 35!

      However, some animals such as pets (dogs, cats,etc), live longer than their natural life expectancy because humans take such good care of them, and can and do get cancer.

      Did you know that there are dinosaur fossils examples in which they found what looks like bone cancer? Yes, even dinosaurs could develop cancer…

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