Is cancer contagious and can it be transmitted to people or animals?

Cancer is one of the significant causes of death. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 10 million deaths from cancer in the world in 2020. According to a statistic from the National Cancer Institute (NIH), it is estimated that 39.5% of people in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. It is no better in Italy, the 2017 ISTAT estimate compared to 2020 provides for 183,200 people who have died of cancer.

A recent study found that overuse of certain medications increases the chance of getting colorectal cancer in people under the age of 50.

The term cancer is an umbrella term and includes many diseases that can affect the whole body. And it is precisely this that sometimes creates confusion and doubts in people. Among the many doubts, the most frequently asked question is whether cancer is contagious and can it be transmitted to people or animals?

Cancer scholars are constantly evolving and it is no longer seen as a death sentence. Research and new treatments have made it possible to obtain positive results in recent years.

Is cancer contagious and can it be transmitted to people or animals?

Mortality rates are highly dependent on the type of cancer. According to the NIH, the survival of people with cancer has improved. For example, in the United States, the likelihood of dying from cancer has steadily declined since the 1990s.

Breast, prostate and thyroid cancer have survival rates of 90%. There was also a sharp decrease for the other cancers. A report published in ACS Journals in March 2020 concludes that mortality rates have fallen on average by 1.5% per year, considering a time factor from 2001 to 2017.

A false myth about cancer is that of contagion. Cancer is not contagious, the person who has contracted cancer cannot pass it on to others. However, some diseases are communicable, such as hepatitis B and C and the human papilloma virus (HPV).

Additionally, scientists documented in The Oncologist that tumors in some animals, including Tasmanian devils and dogs, can cause fatal transmissible tumors.