NEUROENDOCRINE TUMORS NEARLY CAUSING EXTINCTION OF A MAMMAL.

I have spent most of my career studying neuroendocrine (NE) tumors or cancers (1-5). NE cancers are a diverse group of tumors that develop in multiple organs throughout the body. During a recent trip to Tasmania, I learned that there is currently an epidemic within the animal kingdom of a transmissible NE cancer. The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is only found in Tasmania. Devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) is an aggressive, transmissible, and uniformly fatal NE cancer found exclusively in Tasmanian devils. Tumor cells are transmitted between devils through frequent biting during mating and recognized as a rare clonally transmissible cancer. Tasmanian devils were declared an endangered species in 2008. Several interventions are underway to save this species from this deadly transmissible cancer.