Cancer

Definition of Cancer

From the elephant glossary Section: disease

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Cancer is a Group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread.

Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bleeding, prolonged cough, unexplained weight loss, and a change in bowel movements. While these symptoms may indicate cancer, they can also have other cause.

With elephants, the more common types of cancer is cancer in Feet, Uterus, Breasts, or Lymph nodes.

Elephants seem to have 20 different copies of a tumor-suppressing gene known as p53.

Selection pressure for cancer suppression is stronger in Species that are larger and live longer, thus humans have evolved more effective cancer suppression than mice, and larger animals, such as elephants and whales, have evolved more effective cancer suppression than humans.

Cancer incidence does not increase with body size and lifespan. The product of mass and lifespan is not a good predictor of cancer incidence as shown by the logistic regression (model fit shown as red line). The elephant data point is from data collected from Elephant Encyclopedia database and is based off of 644 annotated deaths (Koehl 1995-2012).

We analyzed data from the Elephant Encyclopedia (Koehl 1995-2012) on the cause of death for elephants in captivity in order to get an estimate of their age-incidence and overall lifetime risk of cancer (Figure 5). Out of 644 annotated deaths there were 20 cases of cancer/lethal tumors, resulting in a lifetime cancer incidence of 3.1%.

Using this calculation, the lifetime cancer death rate in elephants in captivity only increased to 4.8%, compared to the 25% lifetime cancer Mortality rates in humans in the United States (ACS
2013) and 13% worldwide (Ferlay et al. 2010).
Caulin, Aleah; "Petos Paradox and the Evolution of Cancer Suppression"

30 Deceased elephants due to cancer.

Name	Species Sex	Origin	Age	Birth	Death date	Death reason	Parents	Arrival Death location
+ -Andra-	EM F	unknown	62	1959?	2021-10-19	pathological Cancer in Uterus	x	Circus Rolando Orfei (Hanmar Circus, Coda Prin)
+ -Mala-	LA F	wild	36	1985	2021-07-30?	disease cancer in the Lymph nodes	x	1988-00-00 Platschow Elefantenhof
+ -Juno-	EM F	wild	51	1970	2021-03-18	euthanised breast cancer	x	2002-04-25 El Paso Zoo
+ -Pawankali-	EM F	wild	?		2020-03-02	disease cancer	x	Shri Panchayati Akhada Mahanirvani temple
+ -Hanako-	EM F	captive-born	57	1963-09-24	2020-02-15	euthanised cancer in foot	Thonglaw x Tuy Hoa	1997-12-09 Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
+ -Siri-	EM F	wild	52	1963-06-00	2015-06-24	euthanised because of cancer	x	2015-00-00 Knies Kinderzoo
+ -Bimbi-	EM F	wild	43	1971	2014-04-02	euthanised cancer	x	1972-00-00 Walding Zoo
+ -Lumni (Lubni, Luki, Lukky, Lucky)-	LA F	wild	32	1982	2014-03-19	euthanised Cancer in Uterus	x	2010-06-17 La Teste Zoo du Bassin d´Arcachon
+ -Limba-	EM F	wild	49	1964	2013-12-03	euthanised cancer	x	Bowmanville Zoo
+ -Sara-	LA F	wild	51	1962-00-00	2013-11-20	euthanised cancer	x	1964-09-08 Rostock Zoo
+ -Jenny-	EM F	wild	52	1961	2013-08-23	disease heart attack because of cancer	x	2009-04-04 Belfast Zoo
+ -Mila-	EM F	unknown	40	1973	2013-07-18	disease cancer in Uterus	x	2008-06-30 Sapucaia Zoo
+ -Nelly-	EM F	wild	42	1970	2012-10-18	disease cancer?	x	1972-09-19 Rome Zoo
+ -Bandula-	LA M	wild	30	1982	2012-10-11	euthanised spleen cancer	x	Natal Zoological Gardens & Lion Park
+ -Loisaba-	LA F	wild	13	1998-01-00	2011-06-28	disease pneumonia indicating Elephant TB (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) or Cancer	x	Tsavo National Park
+ -Salaita-	LA M	wild	2	2008	2010-11-14	disease pneumonia indicating Elephant TB (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) or Cancer?	x	2010-09-25 DSWT Ithumba
+ -Darka-	EM F	unknown	42	1962	2004-07-14	disease brain cancer	x	1997-07-19 Danzig Zoo (Zoo Gdansk)
+ -Ungerly-	EM F	unknown	33	1970	2003	disease cancer	x	2000-00-00 Circus Mundial
+ -Emma Lou-	EM F	wild	?		2003	disease Stomach Cancer	x	1996-00-00 Wild Adventures
+ -Tharun-	EM M	captive-born	5	1995-12-25	2000-12-30	disease cancer?	Hussein x Thura	2000-06-29 Pont-Scorff Zoo
+ -Trulli-	EM F	wild	42	1958	2000-03-30	disease foot problems, foot cancer	x	1960-06-25 Karlsruhe Zoo
+ -Vijaya-	EM M	wild	36	1963	1999-09-11	disease brain cancer	x	1975-00-00 Pinnawala elephant orphanage
+ -Judy-	EM F	wild	52	1945	1997-10-08	disease Cancer	x	1949-07-19 Oklahoma City Zoo
+ -Pepita-	EM F	wild	45	1950	1995	disease Uterus cancer	x	1990-00-00 Zoolandia
+ -Nosey-	EM F	wild	47	1946	1993-10-14	euthanised arthritis; possible uterine cancer	x	1949-09-10 Fresno Chaffee Zoological Gardens
+ -Sonia (Sona)-	EM F	wild	35	1956	1991-10-16	euthanised hoof cancer	x	1967-09-10 Ostrava Zoo
+ -Zita-	EM F	wild	21	1969	1990-07-15	disease cancer in Pancreas	x	1987-08-11 Riga Zoo
+ -Gusti-	EM F	wild	15	1970	1985-06-05	disease Cancer	x	1978-01-01 Augsburg Zoo
+ -Timbo-	LA M	wild	17	1961	1978-05-03	disease cancer in the stomach	x	Ramat Gan Zoo
+ -Bambi-	EM F	wild	25	1952	1977	euthanised foot cancer	x	1955-00-00 Tierpark Berlin

Reference list Koehl, Dan, (2024). Cancer. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 20 September 2021 at https://www.elephant.se/index.php?id=218. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

Caulin, Aleah (July 1, 2014). "Petos Paradox and the Evolution of Cancer Suppression". repository.upenn.edu https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3040&context=edissertations
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27642012/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer

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