Why Do Elephants Get Cancer?

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

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.”

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.

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).

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.

Cancer is defined by the National Cancer Institute as “the name given to a group of related diseases. In all types of cancer, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues.” Cancer can develop at almost any part of the human body and anyone can develop cancer, although risk typically increases with age because most cancers tend to require many years to develop. Typically, human cells tend to grow and divide and ultimately form new cells as the body needs them. When an organisms cells grow old or get damaged, the cells die, and new ones replace them. However when cancer develops, this orderly process gets reformatted. As cells increasingly get more irregular, old or

The paper can help us understand how transmissible cancers emerged and then we can link it to humans to avoid the evolution of cancer in humans.

Indeed animals have helped and continue to improve the search for cures; it is just not worth the pain of a defenseless animal.

In the feature article "Wooly Mammoth DNA inserted into Elephant cells," the author, Tanya Lewis, explains scientist opinion about cloning a hybrid mammoth-elephant. According to the article scientist decided to insert the Mammoth DNA in a lab-grown elephant cell. The article claims that scientist not only used the DNA of a mammoth they have also used Tasmanian tiger, Pyrenean ibex and a passenger pigeon before. According to Scientist these animals are all candidates for de-extinction, by cloning them they could bring them back from extinction. Scientist The article suggest that if this experiment works this could save elephants from humans and help as many endangered species improve their long-term viability.

Animal research makes it possible for new things like,drugs and vaccines to be developed, benefiting both animals and humans. “Proponents of animal testing say that it has enabled the development of many life-saving treatments for both humans and animals, that there is no alternative method for researching a complete living organism, and that strict regulations prevent the mistreatment of animals in laboratories”. Thanks to animal research, in mice, cancer survival rates continued to rise. Even though there are pros about animal testing there are also cons about animal

Commencing, contrasting viewpoints proclaim animal testing as an excellent way of medically progressing, for the sake of humanity. Scientists, researchers, and professors, claim that researching on animals is vital to understanding human health and diseases, for the emergence of new medicines and surgical techniques, and for preventing harm to humans from new medicines or vaccines. Their belief if that human lives would be put at jeopardy without animal experimentation. Biologist and professor Gerard Ian Evan (at Cambridge University) states that mice are “close enough” to humans, in the YouTube video “Fighting cancer: Animal research at Cambridge,” for justifying the availing of the mice, as 92% of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) between people

Dr. Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute, “we have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans” (Using Animals 2). “Terminally ill patients don’t care whether a cancer drug works on a mouse, or that some disease can be cured in another species. Such claims only taunt them with false hope. These people need real cures based on real science—not misleading and antiquated animal experiments” (Pycroft, Martson 3). Often times researchers claim that animal testing is essential to find information about humans regarding medical reasons. However, scientists linked cholesterol with heart disease through Epidemiology, not animal testing. When researchers thought radio keratotomy was impeccable through animals, the first humans were blinded (Greek 1). Some of the animals held in research centers are not even being used. Michael Markarian, officer of the United States Humane Society declares most of the chimpanzees held in the laboratories owned by the United States are not even being used for current research! They are just suffering in cages for years and years for no reason (Animal Experimentation 1). The Journal of the American Medical Association, “Patients and physicians should remain cautious about extrapolating the finding of prominent animal research to the care of human disease… poor replication of even the high-quality animal studies should be expected by those who conduct clinical research” (Using Animals

Due to their similar body structure and improved medicines, animal research must be continued in order for humans to be benefited from cancers and diseases. Even though the cost of these animals is very high, the government must aid scientists for a positive result in people’s health. Without mice, monkeys, bunnies, etc. assisting researchers, people would be suffering or dying from terrible illnesses. Almost the whole world has benefited from animal research, and it would be a shame to end it

First there is the fact that most research and knowledge we have about cancer is of mammals (Evolution of cancer suppression as revealed by mammalian comparative genomics). While there is research about avian and reptilian cancers they are vastly outweighed by studies on placental mammals especially humans. This limits the scope of other possible mechanisms may be behind resistance of cancer. This also shows that Peto’s Paradox may not be applicable to any species outside of mammals. Without a metaanalysis of other species besides mammals it can’t be confirmed as being applicable. There is also the problem of whether we can say that rate of cancer in elephants and whales or any wild species is truly as low as research suggests. Research that has been done on cancer rates in animals has usually used zoo or captive animals. These do not represent the wild population and is impossible to record with a high accuracy. Most of these wild animals die away from human eyes and can’t be collected in areas like the ocean consistently. There is also evidence that TP53 isn’t the only well researched explanation for Peto’s Paradox. There is research showing that it is a combination of cell division speed, metabolism, and cell size that is another likely solution (Cell size and cancer: a new solution to Peto's paradox?). It’s suggested that cell size is not a uniform across species and makes the number of cells not a good metric to use. The larger cells in large organisms also divides more slowly while using less energy resulting in less chances of mutations

On the contrary, animal research plays a crucial role in almost every medical breakthrough within the last ten years, and that is why it is used so frequently. Humans share ninety-five percent of genes with mice, so mice are useful models. Animals and humans are similar in general with the same organ systems, same diseases suffered from, such as cancer, and the same medicines used to heal us, such as antibiotics. Due to research on animals, cancer survival rate has increased, Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapies were created, and AIDS is less threatening. Also, Penicillin tested on mice helped find the antibiotics’ infection-fighting qualities, and asthma inhalers were created using animals (About Us 1). Researchers believe animal medical