As the old adage goes, an elephant never forgets. As scientific fact goes, they hardly ever get cancer, either.
Despite having more cells in their bodies than humans, only one in 20 of the big beasts get cancer, according to a new article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That compares to about one in four of their human counterparts.
Why? It comes down to a specific gene in which elephants have somehow developed quite a surplus. In every pachyderm cell, there are more than 20 copies of a gene known as “p53,” researchers have found.
Humans, on the other hand, only have one copy of the gene in their cells.
While studies continue to zero in on p53, it’s already been linked to the ability to fight cancer in humans. Incomplete or damaged p53 genes in humans are present in patients with a condition called Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Li-Fraumeni sufferers have exhibited a much greater chance of developing cancer than patients with healthy p53 genes.
It’s long been thought that the gene helps damaged cells repair themselves and facilitates cell death when exposed to cancer-causing substances, rather than allowing the cell to mutate into a cancer cell.
While the latest studies’ findings are still preliminary, they are “intriguing,” according to Dr. Ted Gansler from the American Cancer Society. Elephant cells with healthy p53 genes self-destruct at twice the rate of healthy human cells and more than five times the rate of cells from Li-Fraumeni patients, the latest research suggests.
If the p53 relation to stopping cancer can be definitively proven, it could open the door for a slew of new cancer treatment drugs for humans based on the gene. Those treatments would still be several years away, but their source shouldn’t be all that surprising, says Gansler.
“Progress continues to come from unexpected directions,” he says, explaining that studies of eyelid and tooth development in mice led to drugs used for colon cancer, throat, and several other cancers.
Venom from the Blue Scorpion found mainly in Cuba has been employed to kill cancerous tumor cells, while an extract of the venus flytrap plant has been in use since the 1980s. Carnivora, the extract, is taken orally to shrink internal cancer tumors or topically to help fight skin cancers.
