Can plants, fungi, protozoan get cancer?

Question

Just wondering if it's possible for non-mammals to get cancer, and if yes, what are their responses?

lo_mcg · Accepted Answer

Yes plants can get cancer; all living cells can get cancer.

Cancer in plants is usually called 'gall'.

Some reading for you, including a 100 year old article from the NY Times:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC335422/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC335423/?page=2

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9903EFD7153CE633A25756C1A9609C946396D6CF&oref=slogin

Yes, non-mammals get cancer. Take sharks as an example; there's a commonly held belief that sharks don't get cancer - it's even led some quacks to peddle shark cartilage and shark oil as a cancer 'cure'. But they do; Gary Ostrander and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University have detailed more than 40 published examples of tumours in sharks, some dating back to the 1800s.

Anonymous · Answer

No because theory are singled cell and cancer, obviously, requires multiple cells.  You don't have to be a botonist to figure that out!

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Can plants, fungi, protozoan get cancer?

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