ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
A second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 129 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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129 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 280 citations in OpenAlex.
- Improved high-throughput MHC typing for non-model species using long-read sequencing.Molecular ecology resources · 2022Pooled it
- Identification of expressed endogenous retroviral element associated long terminal repeats in devil facial tumour cells.Open biology · 2026Article
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- Metabolic pathways fuelling devil facial tumour diseases.The FEBS journal · 2026Article
- Atlantic to Pacific: Outbreak of bivalve transmissible neoplasia detected in hybridizing soft-shell clams and eDNA in Puget Sound.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Tyrosine kinase targeting uncovers oncogenic pathway plasticity in Tasmanian devil transmissible cancers.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- When cells rebel: a comparative genomics investigation into marsupial cancer susceptibility.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Boost or Bust? The Impact of Supplementation on Functional Genetic Diversity and Selective Processes in Tasmanian Devils.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Red Queen dynamics shape host immunogenetic diversity.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Variation in natural infection outcomes and cancer cell release from soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria) with bivalve transmissible neoplasia.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- The devil in more detail: Eco-evolutionary genomics of Tasmanian devil persistence despite range-wide spread of a fatal, transmissible cancer.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Article
- No Evidence for Distinct Transcriptomic Subgroups of Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD).Evolutionary applications · 2025Article
- Gene expression in soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria) transmissible cancer reveals survival mechanisms during host infection and seawater transfer.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Micro-to multi-chimerism: the multiple facets of a singular phenomenon.Seminars in immunopathology · 2025Review
- Ecology of vertical tumor transmission in the freshwater cnidarian Hydra oligactis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Differentially expressed growth factors and cytokines drive phenotypic changes in transmissible cancers.Discovery immunology · 2025Article
- NEUROENDOCRINE TUMORS NEARLY CAUSING EXTINCTION OF A MAMMAL.Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association · 2025Article
- Identification of an Outbreak of Bivalve Transmissible Neoplasia in Soft-Shell Clams (bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
69 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Clonally transmissible cancers are somatic cell lineages that are spread between individuals via the transfer of living cancer cells. There are only three known naturally occurring transmissible cancers, and these affect dogs, soft-shell clams, and Tasmanian devils, respectively. The Tasmanian devil transmissible facial cancer was first observed in 1996, and is threatening its host species with extinction. Until now, this disease has been consistently associated with a single aneuploid cancer cell lineage that we refer to as DFT1. Here we describe a second transmissible cancer, DFT2, in five devils located in southern Tasmania in 2014 and 2015. DFT2 causes facial tumors that are grossly indistinguishable but histologically distinct from those caused by DFT1. DFT2 bears no detectable cytogenetic similarity to DFT1 and carries a Y chromosome, which contrasts with the female origin of DFT1. DFT2 shows different alleles to both its hosts and DFT1 at microsatellite, structural variant, and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) loci, confirming that it is a second cancer that can be transmitted between devils as an allogeneic, MHC-discordant graft. These findings indicate that Tasmanian devils have spawned at least two distinct transmissible cancer lineages and suggest that transmissible cancers may arise more frequently in nature than previously considered. The discovery of DFT2 presents important challenges for the conservation of Tasmanian devils and raises the possibility that this species is particularly prone to the emergence of transmissible cancers. More generally, our findings highlight the potential for cancer cells to depart from their hosts and become dangerous transmissible pathogens.
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