contagious cancer

[Deatheye]

There are some really ulgy pictures in there. Just warning you in case you have problems with ugly visible cancers and pet penises.

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_murchison.html

Never heared of a cancer beeing able to infect someone else...
Are you allowed to contribute blood if you have or had cancer at some point? Do cancerous cells get filtered out?

 

[alex3619]

Hi Deatheye, cancer is considered non-transmissible due to everyone having different immune markers, the cancer cells should be destroyed by the immune system. Should be. However if two people have similar immune markers then the cancer cells might not be seen as foreign, especially if the recipient has a defective immune system.

Many Australians have known of infectious cancer for years though. The Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease is transmitted by touch. The Tasmanian devils are dying out. It is thought this is in part due to them all having too similar immune systems, but I have not researched this.

Usually you are not permitted to donate blood if you are unwell. Several years after recovery I think this is lifted, but I have never gone looking for this information. If you have undiagnosed cancer though, and few symptoms, you can give blood. If the cancer is in metastasis there could be circulating cancer cells. Its always a risk, but not necessarily a high risk. Dying from blood loss due to a car accident is much more immediate and certain than a low risk of blood-born cancer transfusion.

Bye
Alex

 

[Andrew]

Osler's Web reports an incidence of a woman with a persistent "cold" visiting relatives in three or more parts of the U.S., and each group of relatives she visited was subsequently hit by cancer.

 

[Mya Symons]

Would HPV (human papillomavirus) be considered "contagious cancer?" It is my understanding that once a person gets a the virus, it may mutate the cells of the cervix and eventually some will get cancer. That's why I got my daughter vaccinated anyway. So, if one virus could mutate cells and cause cancer, another could too. Andrew that sounds like an airborne cancer virus. Can you imagine if something like that spread?

Do you think they do this today--inject people with viruses or cancer without telling them? It is interesting that the cancer spread only in prisoners who had weakened immune system.

 

[alex3619]

Would HPV (human papillomavirus) be considered "contagious cancer?" It is my understanding that once a person gets a the virus, it may mutate the cells of the cervix and eventually some will get cancer.

Hi Mya, that is something else -its a contagious virus that can induce cancer. There are lots of those. Bye, Alex