World's Oldest Known Cancer Traced Back to 11,000 Years Ago

Recent findings show that man's best friend is responsible for carrying the world's oldest cancer gene--11,368 years, to be exact.

What's known as canine transmissible venereal tumor (CTVT) is one of the two most commonly known contagious cancers, as well as oldest and most widely spread. Researches have tracked the beginnings of the disease to an Alaskan malamute or husky over 10,000 years ago.

"The genome of this remarkable long-lived cancer has demonstrated that, given the right conditions, cancers can continue to survive for more than 10,000 years despite the accumulation of millions of mutations", Elizabeth Murchison, first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge, said in a press release. "We do not know why this particular individual gave rise to a transmissible cancer. But it is fascinating to look back in time and reconstruct the identity of this ancient dog whose genome is still alive today in the cells of the cancer that it spawned."

Researchers wanted to determine how the disease escaped the original host and enabled cancer to last so long. Through further investigation, they found that the cancer might have survived via the transfer of its cancer cells to subsequent dogs during mating.

"The patterns of genetic variants in tumors from different continents suggested that the cancer existed in one isolated population of dogs for most of its history," Murchison added. "It spread around the world within the last 500 years, possibly carried by dogs accompanying seafarers on their global explorations during the dawn of the age of exploration."

In order to develop a better understanding of how the disease spread, researchers also used genome sequencing.

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Science.