https://www.the-scientist.com/features/some-cancers-become-contagious-65617
“[The discovery] really changed everything we thought we knew” about transmissible cancers, she says.
We were forced to the realization at the time that this was a third example of a transmissible tumor happening,”
The realization that such contagious cancers may be more widespread than previously thought has intensified efforts to understand their biology—not just for the sake of the species they affect, but also to understand how cancer can become an infectious disease. Many questions remain unanswered, including how these diseases emerge and in what populations. But in the last few years, genetic and immunological studies have provided some insight into these cancers’ interactions with their hosts.