Scientists reveal how elephants ‘hold the key’ to finally beating cancer

Center for Elephant Conservation.

When they studied samples of elephant blood, they found that African elephants have at least 20 copies of the p53 gene from each parent.

If p53 develops a fault it can leave people at the mercy of cancer.

“Nature has already figured out how to prevent cancer”.

Before the new discovery, elephants were considered to be a walking conundrum. Although these African rodents aren’t massive, they survive for up to 28 years, nearly 10 times longer than lab rats, and they don’t develop cancer. Schiffman and his team report that the cancer mortality rate in elephants is less than 5 percent, compared to 11-25 percent in people.

This means that as elephants evolved, their bodies made many extra copies of a gene that prevents tumors from forming.

Humans typically have just two copies of a tumor-blocking gene called TP53, inheriting one from their mother and one from their father, said Joshua Schiffman, co-author of the study published Thursday in JAMA. A substantial majority, 38 of them, are so-called retrogenes, modified duplicates that have been churned out over evolutionary time. Ringling Bros also provided funding. The more cells an animal carries, the higher the odds that one of them will suffer the DNA damage that can lead to cancer. Instead, the elephant cells were twice as likely to die after radiation exposure than were human cells. Over half of all human cancers, according to Schiffman, have a dysfunctional TP53 which means mutated cells keep dividing.

With respect to cancer, patients with inherited Li-Fraumeni Syndrome are almost the opposite of elephants. People who have a defective version – a condition called Li-Fraumeni syndrome – usually get cancer in childhood, and their lifetime risk is close to 100 per cent. “One child with cancer is one child too many”. Then they exposed those cells to radiation that caused the double strands of DNA to break. These findings support the idea that more p53 offers additional protection against cancer.

It is particularly startling as elephants should have a high risk of cancer due to their size. “Now I think it’s up to us to take a page out of nature’s playbook and learn how to take this information and apply it to those who need it most”. Additional studies will be needed to determine whether p53 directly protects elephants from cancer. They then subjected the cells to treatments that damage DNA, a cancer trigger.

Rather than offering short-term hope for cancer patients, Vogelstein said, the new study is “just a fascinating story about elephants”.

Schiffman and his fellow researchers plan to use their findings to looks into possible ways to get human cells to act more like an elephant’s. Schiffman is a pediatric oncologist, professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah and an investigator at the university’s Huntsman Cancer Institute. The elephants from these shows are set to retire at the Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, founded in 1995. Also contributing to the research was Eric Peterson, elephant manager at Utah’s Hogle Zoo. Now, researchers believe they know why, and it could reap dividends for humans.

It’s an elephant-sized mystery. What a fantastic benefit: “elephants and humans living longer, better lives”.

If you look at human metabolism on a scale compared with other animals, we’re out of synch for our size, he said.

Yet cancer is relatively rare in elephants. For a copy of the paper, email the JAMA Network media relations department at mediarelations@jamanetwork.org.

To Greaves, the lesson is to focus on the causes of cancer. “They should all be dropping dead of cancer and going extinct”. The team used data from the Elephant Encyclopedia, which tallies the births and deaths of all captive elephants worldwide, and from necropsies performed on animals of more than 30 species at the San Diego Zoo in California. Center for Elephant Conservation is available online at http://www.ringlingelephantcenter.com. The institute is named after Jon M. Huntsman, a Utah philanthropist, industrialist, and cancer survivor. Feld Entertainment’s productions have appeared in more than 75 countries and on six continents to date and include Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey®, Monster Jam®, Monster Energy Supercross, AMSOIL Arenacross, Disney On Ice Presented by StonyfieldYoKids Organic Yogurt, Disney Live!

Utah’s Hogle Zoo is one of only 228 accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA). AZA is a leader in global wildlife conservation, and your link to helping animals in their native habitats.