Clonally transmissible cancer

A transmissible cancer is a cancer cell or cluster of cancer cells that can be transferred between individuals without the involvement of an infectious agent, such as an Oncovirus.[1][2] The evolution of transmissible cancer has occurred naturally in other animal species, but human cancer transmission is rare.[2] This transfer is typically between members of the same species or closely related species.[3]

General mechanism[edit]

Transmissible cancers require a specific combination of related circumstances to occur. These conditions involve both the host species and the tumors being transferred. They are typically low genetic diversity among individuals, effective physical and environmental transport system, effective dose of infective material and ideal micro-environments.[4] The cancers reproduce faster in larger quantities with different means of reproduction tend to be favored for transmission if host conditions are met. Transmissible cancers follow the general pattern of cancer spread, starting with the growth of primary cancer cells at tumor sites followed by invasion of surrounding tissue and subsequent spread throughout the organism.[5] The main hurdles for surviving cells of a successful spread to a new host are histocompatibility barriers. The cancers have to bypass the self recognition system, survive the difference in nutrients and induce the correct response in the new hosts to begin the cycle anew.[6]

Transmissible cancers behave as true parasites, relying primarily on transport systems like direct contact, environmental transport and vectors, rather than hematogenous and lymphatic carriers to spread between organisms.[4] The amount of shredded cancer cells from initial host has to be high enough to increase survival probability. Direct contact transmissions through sexual or general contact such as in DFTD and CVTD ensures a higher potential for transmission.[4] Population factors also play an important role. A dense population of available and uninfected potential hosts is ideal for the tumors given the complexity and difficulty of the overall process, hence its virulence and potency must be adequately controlled.[3]

Humans[edit]

In humans, a significant fraction of Kaposi's sarcoma occurring after transplantation may be due to tumorous outgrowth of donor cells.[7] Although Kaposi's sarcoma is caused by a virus (Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus), in these cases, it appears likely that transmission of virus-infected tumor cells—rather than the free virus—caused tumors in the transplant recipients.[2]

In 2007, four people (three women and one man) received different organ transplants (liver, both lungs and kidneys) from a 53-year-old woman who had recently died from intracranial bleeding. Before transplantation, the organ donor was deemed to have no signs of cancer upon medical examination. The organ recipients developed metastatic breast cancer from the organs and three of them died from the cancer between 2009–2017.[8]

In 2014, a case of parasite-to-host cancer transmission occurred in a 41-year-old man in Colombia with a compromised immune system due to HIV. The man's tumor cells were shown to have originated from the dwarf tapeworm, Hymenolepis nana.[9] In the 1990s, an undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma was transmitted from a 32-year-old patient to his 53-year-old surgeon when the surgeon injured his hand during an operation. Within five months, a tumor had developed on the hand of the surgeon and was subsequently excised. Histologic examinations of the tumor tissues from the patient and surgeon showed that both were morphologically identical.[10] In 1986, a 19-year-old laboratory worker mistakenly punctured her hand with a needle previously used to extract human colonic cancer cells. No injection of the substance occurred, and the worker suffered a small puncture wound with bleeding. Within 19 days, she had developed a small cancerous nodule on her hand. The tumor was removed soon after, and has since shown no sign of reoccurrence.[11]

Other animals[edit]

Contagious cancers are known to occur in dogs, Tasmanian devils, Syrian hamsters, and some marine bivalves including soft-shell clams. These cancers have a relatively stable genome as they are transmitted.[12] Recent studies have tested whether other highly prevalent wildlife cancers, such as urogenital carcinomas in Californian sea lions, could also be contagious but so far there is no evidence for this.[13]

Clonally transmissible cancer, caused by a clone of malignant cells rather than a virus,[14] is an extremely rare disease modality,[15] with few transmissible cancers being known.[1] The evolution of transmissible cancer is unlikely, because the cell clone must be adapted to survive a physical transmission of living cells between hosts, and must be able to survive in the environment of a new host's immune system.[16] Animals that have undergone population bottlenecks may be at greater risks of contracting transmissible cancers due to a lack of overall genetic diversity. Infectious cancers may also evolve to circumvent immune response by means of natural selection in order to spread.[17] Because of their transmission, it was initially thought that these diseases were caused by the transfer of oncoviruses, in the manner of cervical cancer caused by human papillomavirus.[2] However, canine transmissible venereal tumor mutes the expression of the immune response, whereas the Syrian hamster disease spreads due to lack of genetic diversity.[18]

Canine transmissible venereal tumor[edit]

Canine transmissible venereal tumor (CTVT) is sexually transmitted cancer which induces cancerous tumors on the genitalia of both male and female dogs, typically during mating. It was first described medically by a veterinary practitioner in London in 1810.[19] It was experimentally transplanted between dogs in 1876 by M. A. Novinsky (1841–1914). A single malignant clone of CTVT cells has colonized dogs worldwide, representing the oldest known malignant cell line in continuous propagation,[20] a fact that was uncovered in 2006. Researchers deduced that the CTVT went through 2 million mutations to reach its actual state, and inferred it started to develop in ancient dog species 11 000 years ago.[19]

Contagious reticulum cell sarcoma[edit]

Contagious reticulum cell sarcoma of the Syrian hamster[21] can be transmitted from one Syrian hamster to another through various mechanisms. It has been seen to spread within a laboratory population, presumably through gnawing at tumours and cannibalism.[1] It can also be spread by means of the bite of the mosquito Aedes aegypti.[22]

Devil facial tumour disease[edit]

Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is a transmissible parasitic cancer in the Tasmanian devil.[23] Since its discovery in 1996, DFTD has spread and infected 4/5 of all Tasmanian devils and threatens them with extinction. DFTD has a near 100% fatality rate, and has killed up to 90% of Tasmanian devil populations living in some reserves.[24] A new DFTD tumor-type cancer was recently uncovered on 5 Tasmanian devils (DFT2), histologically different from DFT1, leading researchers to believe that the Tasmanian devil "is particularly prone to the emergence of transmissible cancers".[19]

Bivalves[edit]

Soft-shell clams, Mya arenaria, have been found to be vulnerable to a transmissible neoplasm of the hemolymphatic system — effectively, leukemia.[25][26] The cells have infected clam beds hundreds of miles from each other, making this clonally transmissible cancer the only one that does not require contact for transmission.[19]

Horizontally transmitted cancers have also been discovered in three other species of marine bivalves: bay mussels (Mytilus trossulus), common cockles (Cerastoderma edule) and golden carpet shell clams (Polititapes aureus). The golden carpet shell clam cancer was found to have been transmitted from another species, the pullet carpet shell (Venerupis corrugata).[27][28]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Ostrander EA, Davis BW, Ostrander GK (January 2016). "Transmissible Tumors: Breaking the Cancer Paradigm". Trends in Genetics. 32 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2015.10.001. PMC 4698198. PMID 26686413.
  2. ^ a b c d Welsh JS (2011). "Contagious cancer". The Oncologist. 16 (1): 1–4. doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2010-0301. PMC 3228048. PMID 21212437.
  3. ^ a b Dujon AM, Gatenby RA, Bramwell G, MacDonald N, Dohrmann E, Raven N, et al. (July 2020). "Transmissible Cancers in an Evolutionary Perspective". iScience. 23 (7): 101269. Bibcode:2020iSci...23j1269D. doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101269. PMC 7327844. PMID 32592998.
  4. ^ a b c Ujvari B, Gatenby RA, Thomas F (2016-04-01). "The evolutionary ecology of transmissible cancers". Infection, Genetics and Evolution. 39: 293–303. doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2016.02.005. ISSN 1567-1348. PMID 26861618.
  5. ^ Nguyen DX, Bos PD, Massagué J (April 2009). "Metastasis: from dissemination to organ-specific colonization". Nature Reviews Cancer. 9 (4): 274–284. doi:10.1038/nrc2622. ISSN 1474-175X. PMID 19308067.
  6. ^ Gatenby RA, Gillies RJ (January 2008). "A microenvironmental model of carcinogenesis". Nature Reviews Cancer. 8 (1): 56–61. doi:10.1038/nrc2255. ISSN 1474-175X. PMID 18059462.
  7. ^ Barozzi P, Luppi M, Facchetti F, Mecucci C, Alù M, Sarid R, et al. (May 2003). "Post-transplant Kaposi sarcoma originates from the seeding of donor-derived progenitors". Nature Medicine. 9 (5): 554–61. doi:10.1038/nm862. PMID 12692543. S2CID 2527251.
  8. ^ Matser YA, Terpstra ML, Nadalin S, Nossent GD, de Boer J, van Bemmel BC, et al. (July 2018). "Transmission of breast cancer by a single multiorgan donor to 4 transplant recipients". American Journal of Transplantation. 18 (7): 1810–1814. doi:10.1111/ajt.14766. PMID 29633548.
  9. ^ Muehlenbachs A, Bhatnagar J, Agudelo CA, Hidron A, Eberhard ML, Mathison BA, et al. (November 2015). "Malignant Transformation of Hymenolepis nana in a Human Host". The New England Journal of Medicine. 373 (19): 1845–52. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1505892. PMID 26535513.
  10. ^ Gärtner HV, Seidl C, Luckenbach C, Schumm G, Seifried E, Ritter H, et al. (November 1996). "Genetic analysis of a sarcoma accidentally transplanted from a patient to a surgeon". The New England Journal of Medicine. 335 (20): 1494–6. doi:10.1056/NEJM199611143352004. PMID 8890100.
  11. ^ Gugel EA, Sanders ME (December 1986). "Needle-stick transmission of human colonic adenocarcinoma". The New England Journal of Medicine. 315 (23): 1487. doi:10.1056/NEJM198612043152314. PMID 3785302.
  12. ^ Weiss RA, Fassati A, Murgia C (2006). "A sexually transmitted parasitic cancer". Retrovirology. 3 (Supplement 1): S92. doi:10.1186/1742-4690-3-S1-S92. PMC 1717007.
  13. ^ Ní Leathlobhair M, Gulland FM, Murchison EP (2017-06-22). "No evidence for clonal transmission of urogenital carcinoma in California sea lions ( Zalophus californianus)". Wellcome Open Research. 2: 46. doi:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.11483.1. PMC 5527528. PMID 28948233.
  14. ^ Rebbeck CA, Thomas R, Breen M, Leroi AM, Burt A (September 2009). "Origins and evolution of a transmissible cancer". Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution. 63 (9): 2340–9. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00724.x. PMID 19453727.
  15. ^ Strakova A, Murchison EP (February 2015). "The cancer which survived: insights from the genome of an 11000 year-old cancer" (PDF). Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. 30: 49–55. doi:10.1016/j.gde.2015.03.005. PMID 25867244. S2CID 21195930.
  16. ^ Baez-Ortega A, Gori K, Strakova A, Allen JL, Allum KM, Bansse-Issa L, et al. (August 2019). "Somatic evolution and global expansion of an ancient transmissible cancer lineage". Science. 365 (6452): eaau9923. doi:10.1126/science.aau9923. PMC 7116271. PMID 31371581.
  17. ^ Belov K (February 2011). "The role of the Major Histocompatibility Complex in the spread of contagious cancers". Mammalian Genome. 22 (1–2): 83–90. doi:10.1007/s00335-010-9294-2. PMID 20963591. S2CID 8303843.
  18. ^ Siddle HV, Kreiss A, Eldridge MD, Noonan E, Clarke CJ, Pyecroft S, et al. (October 2007). "Transmission of a fatal clonal tumor by biting occurs due to depleted MHC diversity in a threatened carnivorous marsupial". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104 (41): 16221–6. doi:10.1073/pnas.0704580104. PMC 1999395. PMID 17911263.
  19. ^ a b c d Harrison C (May 2018). "Clonally transmissible cancers in nature". Cancer Therapy Advisor. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  20. ^ Murgia C, Pritchard JK, Kim SY, Fassati A, Weiss RA (August 2006). "Clonal origin and evolution of a transmissible cancer". Cell. 126 (3): 477–87. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2006.05.051. PMC 2593932. PMID 16901782.
  21. ^ Copper HL, Mackay CM, Banfield WG (October 1964). "Chromosome studies of a contagious reticulum cell sarcoma of the Syrian hamster". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 33 (4): 691–706. doi:10.1093/jnci/33.4.691. PMID 14220251.
  22. ^ Banfield WG, Woke PA, Mackay CM, Cooper HL (May 1965). "Mosquito transmission of a reticulum cell sarcoma of hamsters". Science. 148 (3674): 1239–40. Bibcode:1965Sci...148.1239B. doi:10.1126/science.148.3674.1239. PMID 14280009. S2CID 12611674.
  23. ^ Pearse AM, Swift K (February 2006). "Allograft theory: transmission of devil facial-tumour disease". Nature. 439 (7076): 549. Bibcode:2006Natur.439..549P. doi:10.1038/439549a. PMID 16452970. S2CID 4409863.
  24. ^ Epstein B, Jones M, Hamede R, Hendricks S, McCallum H, Murchison EP, et al. (August 2016). "Rapid evolutionary response to a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils". Nature Communications. 7 (1): 12684. Bibcode:2016NatCo...712684E. doi:10.1038/ncomms12684. PMC 5013612. PMID 27575253.
  25. ^ Yong E (2015-04-09). "Selfish shellfish cells cause contagious clam cancer". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
  26. ^ Metzger MJ, Reinisch C, Sherry J, Goff SP (April 2015). "Horizontal transmission of clonal cancer cells causes leukemia in soft-shell clams". Cell. 161 (2): 255–63. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.042. PMC 4393529. PMID 25860608.
  27. ^ Metzger MJ, Villalba A, Carballal MJ, Iglesias D, Sherry J, Reinisch C, et al. (June 2016). "Widespread transmission of independent cancer lineages within multiple bivalve species". Nature. 534 (7609): 705–9. Bibcode:2016Natur.534..705M. doi:10.1038/nature18599. PMC 4939143. PMID 27338791.
  28. ^ Frierman EM, Andrews JD (February 1976). "Occurrence of hematopoietic neoplasms in Virginia oysters (Crassostrea virginica)". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 56 (2): 319–24. doi:10.1093/jnci/56.2.319. PMID 1255763.

External links[edit]