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Sharks & Cancer?

A

Anonymous

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I'm sure that I can't be the only one to have heard the story that sharks cannot catch cancer. Versions of the story have it that scientists have attempted to start cancers in sharks, but that bizarrely the cancer just withers away.

Today in the Observer, a medical article (discussing the dubious claims re: the use of shark cartilage in cancer treatments) claimed that this wasn't true. I've looked on Snopes and can't find it there.

Can anyone lead me to a definitive answer? :confused:
 
Another article here

It seems that sharks do get cancer, and that the use of shark cartilage is at best useless and at worst dangerous (it doesn't help the sharks much either).

I must admit that I'd never heard of this story before... very educating, this place!

Jane.
 
I saw a remarkably crap horror movie that used that as a premiss. Shark Attack it was called - I love channel 5. :D
Anyways, it was made in 1999, so the idea that sharks don't get cancer must have been around by then.
 
Since many species of shark are endangered, it bothers me where the hell they've been getting all this shark cartilage which people are uselessly shovelling down their necks...

Thanks for the articles, very enlightening!
 
Sally said:
I saw a remarkably crap horror movie that used that as a premiss. Shark Attack it was called - I love channel 5. :D
Anyways, it was made in 1999, so the idea that sharks don't get cancer must have been around by then.
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Wasn't that the storyline in 'Deep Blue Sea' with LL Cool J ??

Channel 5 is Da Lick! :D
 
Thanks!

Thanks all. I'm normally a bit sceptical of "miracle" medical stories, but that one slipped in completely under the radar. :yeay:
 
"Sharks get cancer," said Shiffman, who wasn't involved in the study. "Even if they didn't get cancer, eating shark products won't cure cancer any more than me eating Michael Jordan would make me better at basketball."
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:rollingw:

However, reports of cancerous tumors in marine animals, especially mammals, have steadily increased over the past 20 years, raising concerns that industrial pollutants or human activities may trigger the cancers, according to the study.
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This is so depressing. Earth is completely screwed isn't it?
 
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