Question: Can censer kill animals?

Matthew Smith answered on 7 Mar 2019:

Yes. Many animals can get cancer like humans do. Often it’s not as common though, as unlike humans, they can get other diseases which they can’t cure unlike us. For example, just over a hundred years ago, people would get a disease called polio which could make people very sick and even kill them. Humans have since invented vaccines and this has made this disease almost extinct. Animals in the wild don’t have the help of vaccines (we do give some to our pets or farm animals though!).

What is really interesting is certain animals don’t seem to ever get cancer. These include the naked mole rat. Really recently scientists have discovered great white sharks don’t get cancer either. This has got scientists very excited as studying these animals may give us clues about how to stop humans getting the disease.