• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Male dogs four times more likely to develop contagious cancer on nose or mouth than females

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
July 4, 2022
in Biology
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Free-roaming dog
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Sniffing or licking other dogs’ genitalia – the common site of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour – can spread this unusual cancer to the nose and mouth.

Free-roaming dog

Credit: Cameron Raw

Sniffing or licking other dogs’ genitalia – the common site of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour – can spread this unusual cancer to the nose and mouth.

A new study has found that male dogs are four to five times more likely than female dogs to be infected with the oro-nasal form of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour.

Researchers think this is because of behaviour differences between the sexes: male dogs spend more time sniffing and licking female dogs’ genitalia than vice versa.

Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour, or CTVT, is an unusual cancer – it is infectious and can spread between dogs when they come into contact. The living cancer cells physically ‘transplant’ themselves from one animal to the other.

CTVT commonly affects dogs’ genitals and is usually transmitted during mating. But sometimes the cancer can affect other areas like the nose, mouth and skin.

In the study, the researchers reviewed a database of almost 2,000 cases of CTVT from around the globe and found that only 32 CTVT tumours affected the nose or mouth. Of these, 27 cases were in male dogs.

“We found that a very significant proportion of the nose or mouth tumours of canine transmissible cancer were in male dogs,” said Dr Andrea Strakova in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine, first author of the paper. She performed this study with colleagues from the Transmissible Cancer Group, led by Professor Elizabeth Murchison.

Strakova added: “We think this is because male dogs may have a preference for sniffing or licking the female genitalia, compared to vice versa. The female genital tumours may also be more accessible for sniffing and licking, compared to the male genital tumours.”

The findings are published today in the journal Veterinary Record.

CTVT first arose several thousand years ago from the cells of one individual dog; remarkably, the cancer survived beyond the death of this original dog by spreading to new dogs. This transmissible cancer is now found in dog populations worldwide, and is the oldest and most prolific cancer lineage known in nature.

CTVT isn’t common in the UK, although case numbers have risen in the past decade. This is thought to be linked to the import of dogs from abroad. The disease occurs worldwide but is mostly linked to countries with free-roaming dog populations.

“Although canine transmissible cancer can be diagnosed and treated fairly easily, veterinarians in the UK may not be familiar with the signs of the disease because it is very rare here,” said Strakova.

She added: “We think it’s important to consider CTVT as a possible diagnosis for oro-nasal tumours in dogs. Treatment is very effective, using single agent Vincristine chemotherapy, and the vast majority of dogs recover.”

The most common symptoms of the oro-nasal form of the cancer are sneezing, snoring, difficulty breathing, nasal deformation or bloody and other discharge from the nose or mouth.

Genital cases of CTVT occur in roughly equal numbers of male and female dogs.

Transmissible cancers are also found in Tasmanian Devils, and in marine bivalves like mussels and clams. The researchers say that studying this unusual long-lived cancer could also be helpful in understanding how human cancers work.



Journal

Veterinary Record

DOI

10.1002/vetr.1794

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Sex disparity in oronasal presentations of canine transmissible venereal tumour

Article Publication Date

4-Jul-2022

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

OfGATA9 Boosts Flower Size in Sweet Osmanthus

October 3, 2025
Exploring Phytobiotics in Fish and Shellfish

Exploring Phytobiotics in Fish and Shellfish

October 3, 2025

Conserved Small Sequences Revealed by Yeast Ribo-seq

October 3, 2025

Atlas Reveals Testicular Aging Across Species

October 2, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    92 shares
    Share 37 Tweet 23
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    86 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 22
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Exploring Mitochondrial Dynamics in Cancer Drug Resistance

Rice Bran Extract: A Shield Against Neuroinflammation

Nationwide Survey Reveals Insights on Internal Medicine Mentorship

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Success! An email was just sent to confirm your subscription. Please find the email now and click 'Confirm' to start subscribing.

Join 60 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.