Why Do Elephants Get Cancer?

Even though these scientists already found a cure to get rid of tumors, they still has to test it on someone, in this case it would be a wildlife. Frankie L. Trull explained, “Then, in 2000 a research team from Duke and Stony Brook showed how a genetically modified poliovirus eliminated human tumors bearing that special receptor in mice” (Animal Testing and Its Gift to Humans). All these people have worked very hard to rescue so many people from dying. This beasts have gone through complicated things to help create new medications.

In fact, our own immune system is 98% identical to mouse’s immune system. (Healthcentral.com) Because human beings and animals are so biologically similar, it makes sense to test them as opposed to testing other human beings. In 2011, a poll conducted by the science journal Nature found that 90% of 1,000 biomedical scientists agreed that animals being used in research are essential to promote safe and breakthrough cures. For instance, animal research has been essential for the development of Heceptin and Tamoxiflen, two medicines that have saved thousands of men and women with breast cancer. (Amprogress.org) Lung cancer is another leading cause of death in the United States. In this case, mice were used to help progress research because of how similar their lungs are to human beings’. (Amprogress.org) Furthermore, it can be said that animal research leads to medical progress.

According to procon.org, "Chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA with humans, and mice are 98% genetically similar to humans" (Should Animals Be Used for Scientific or Commercial Testing?) Animals can develop the same diseases as humans for example, animals can develop almost every type of cancer that humans can become ill with. The number one killer in America is Heart Disease. "Heart disease and related conditions affect fifty-two million Americans and cost our nation $274 billion dollars a year. “These conditions are the number one killers of men, women, and children." (American Physiological Society). Due to the testing of medicines on animals, the death rate has decline enormously. With the tests conducted on animals many treatments and preventions were made. The second highest killer in America is HIV/AIDS, today in America nearly one million citizens have been diagnosed. "There are treatments but still no cure for this disease that cripples the immune system and is fatal in all but a handful of cases." (APS). Researchers are working hard to find a cure. The virus is being tested in chickens, cats, and monkeys. The most favorable drugs and possible vaccines are first tested in mice and monkeys before being used in clinical trials with human volunteers who have the virus and are usually close to death. Coming in as the third highest killer in the United States is Cancer. "Treatment of 100 kinds of cancer costs our nation an estimated $107 billion dollars a year... In the 1930s, less than one cancer victim in five survived for five years. Today, almost half the people diagnosed with cancer will live at least five years, and some never have a recurrence of their disease. There are 8 million Americans alive today who have had cancer." (APS) When cancer infects the body, it invade the healthy cells killing them and multiplying more and more of the diseased cancerous cells. Chickens were proved

Various speculations of how cancer is produced have been looked into through numerous years and

In order for human trials to begin, there has to be a number of animal model studies done. In 2013 there was a Phase III clinical trial at the University of PA and Georgetown that used mice and primates to shrink tumors. This led to a breakthrough to treat patients with melanoma. Looking past the success testing on animals has contributed, activists still say that there needs to be elimination. Trull states, “those who doubt this value need only look at the faces of patients in the Duke Trial whose lives have been saved by these essential research techniques”.

- There are different kinds of Cancers that can be caused by many different factors.

Another reason is the medical advancements being made. “Understanding Animal Research” says that, ¨Thanks to animal research, primarily in mice, cancer survival rates have continued to rise. This means that lives are being saved. ¨Animal research and testing has played a part in almost every medical breakthrough of the last century. It has saved

Something that cannot be overlooked is the inaccuracy between animal trials and human trials. In a document released by the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) it was reveled that more than 80 HIV aids vaccinations passed animal trials with flying colours, only to later fail to treat a single human correctly. Dr. Richard Klausner the former director of the national cancer institute had said the following in relation to the issue “we have cured mice of cancer for decades and it simply does not work in humans.”

The Tallahassee Democrat News, a site that is part of the USA Today Network, reports current news on scientific advancements. The article, Fruit Flies Yield Clues On Cancerous Tumor Hotspots, offers an overview of the research done by Yoichiro Tamori, Wu-Min Deng, and Emiko Suzuki, who have discovered that epithelial tissues in fruit flies can be cancerous. The reasoning behind studying fruit flies is because, “Flies and humans have a lot in common in terms of genes and pathways for developing cancer” (Haughney). In the article, the researchers explain that the tumor hot spots, which appear to be near the epithelial tissues, found in fruit flies have also been found in several human cancers, “These tumor hotspots all involved an oncogenic signaling pathway that have been shown to play a part in many types of human cancers” (Haughney). However, the scientists do assure the reader that in distinct areas of the epithelial tissue there are tumor cold spots. Without a doubt, this is the beginning of a prolonged experiment, “The more we know, the better we can get at treating and preventing cancer” (Haughney).

Through the use of credible and reliable sources, PETA’s argument builds validity. The author recounts “President Richard Nixon sign[ing] the Conquest of Cancer Act in 1971” (PETA, 2015) to introduce that any money raised for cancer is not stopping hundreds of thousands dying from it each year, and that animals contributed as test objects for these newfound drugs are not suddenly going to cure cancer. Since an American president is mentioned, the audience will trust the upcoming evidence. Furthermore, the author establishes ethos with well-known acts and dependable doctors. Referencing the “40 percent of all research funding from the U.S. National Institute of Health” and organizations like the “American Board of Anesthesiologists [whom] even require physicians to complete simulation training - not animal laboratories” (PETA 2015). The first reference represents the billions of dollars swallowed by animal experimentation funds. Citing information from the U.S. Institute of Health notes the continued spending, even with countless failed experiments. Ethos is held by the author due to the credible sources incorporated within

Cancer is the main cause of death in the world, estimating 8.2 million fatalities in 2012 alone

Yet many people still are of the belief that research on animals is justified because of the following reasons: To advance scientific understanding, to consider animals as models to study disease, to develop and test potential forms of treatment before implementing on humans, and to protect the safety of people, animals, and the environment. They may also show the facts that: animal research has played a vital part in nearly every medical breakthrough over the last decade, humans share 95% of our genes with a mouse, making them an effective model for the human body, have similar organ systems, suffer from similar diseases, cancer survival rates have continued to rise, idea of vaccines was started by

The next experiment that must be performed is to determine the cause of the naked mole-rats' hypersensitivity. A study searched for the signal that leads to early contact inhibition and determined it to be hyaluronan. Hyaluronan is a key part of the extracellular matrix and has a high molecular mass in naked mole-rats. The hyaluronan in naked mole-rats represses signaling for mitosis as well as having anti-inflammatory properties(Tian et al., 2013). An alternative explanation for the naked mole-rats' cancer resistance could be its ability to use telomerase to regulate chromosomal length. Compared to the use of senescence in humans, telomerase makes cells immortal in culture by preventing cells from becoming too short leading to cancerous cells or apoptosis. Another possible alternative explanation is the number of copies of p53 that the naked mole-rat has. In a study in which the cancer resistance of large mammals was compared to their DNA damage response, the results showed that elephants have at least 20 copies of p53 compared to humans 1 copy. This is believed to be the cause of elephants' high cancer resistivity(Abegglen et al., 2015). These copies allow elephants to have a backup tumor suppressor in case of damage to another

Animal testing is essential for developing lifesaving treatments. Due to experiments on animals we have treatments for diabetics, tuberculosis, breast cancer, malaria and brain injuries. Immunizations against mumps, polio, and hepatitis has saved a countless number of lives thanks to the discovery of new drugs. Roughly ninety-five percent of all lab animals are special-bred mice and rats. The balance of animals that are tested on is rabbits, guinea pigs, sheep, pigs, and fruit flies. Rodents are considered the number one choice for modern medical researchers because they have a short life span. They choose animals that have a life span of two to three years because that allows the scientists to observe what happens during the “fast forward” stage. Six out of the eight major discoveries were recognized with Nobel Prizes, some of which involve the bone-marrow transplant, cloning of genes, and the detection of proto-oncogenes in normal DNA. The essential need for animal research and observation is supported by health agencies and medical associations around the world.

There is no argument that animals have played a critical role in medical research and paved the way for antidotes, cures and remedies for humans throughout history. Aristotle, who lived back in the fourth century B.C., is one of the first to be recorded as experimenting on a living animal. Back in the 1920s there was experimental testing on dogs which gave conclusive evidence to the functions the pancreas has on producing insulin. Before this, diabetes was untreatable, unmanageable and would easily result in death in humans (The Discovery of Insulin). Although testing on animals has been beneficial to us in many instances, there are several examples that prove testing on animals has hurt rather than helped the process. Many scientists argue that the physiological makeup of an animal differs strongly from that of a human resulting in different outcomes of drugs and other experiments. There has been a strong connection between smoking and lung cancer dating back to the 1960s, however all experiments done with animals failed to show