Contagious cancers may not be as rare as thought, say scientists who have discovered a second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils - small dog-sized ferocious carnivores found in the Australian island state of Tasmania.
Transmissible cancers - cancers which can spread between individuals by the transfer of living cancer cells - are believed to arise extremely rarely in nature.
One of the few known transmissible cancers causes facial tumours in Tasmanian devils, and is threatening this species with extinction.
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