• Scientists to use elephant DNA to help stop spread of cancer in humans

• Animals have been found to carry genes which can stop growth of tumours

• Elephants are rarely known to develop the disease and could help find cure

Scientists are hoping to utilise elephant DNA to help halt the spread of cancer in humans.

The giants of the animal kingdom have been found to carry a huge number of genes which can stop the growth of tumours, scientists say.

Elephants are rarely – if ever – known to develop the disease, and now scientists have discovered they carry 20 copies of a tumour-supressing gene, called TP53, compared to just one copy in humans.

Scientists are hoping to use elephant DNA to help stop the spread of cancer in humans after experts in Chicago found the animals carry a huge number of genes which can stop the growth of tumours (file picture)

Researchers found that by activating the gene in mice, the rodents subsequently developed a similar protection to cancer as elephants.

They believe the technique could also be replicated in humans.

Dr Vincent Lynch, the study author from the University of Chicago, said: ‘A major constraint on the evolution of large body sizes in animals is an increased risk of developing cancer.

‘If all cells have a similar risk of malignant transformation an organism with many cells should have a higher risk of developing cancer than organisms with fewer cells.

‘Organisms with long lifespans have more time to accumulate cancer-causing mutations than organisms with shorter lifespans and therefore should be at an increased risk of developing cancer.’

The news that elephants carry 20 copies of the special anti-cancer gene may also help explain ‘Peto’s Paradox’, the fact that the incidence of cancer does not increase as expected with the size of the animal.

Elephants are rarely - if ever - known to develop cancer, and now scientist have discovered they carry twenty copies of a tumour-supressing gene, called TP53, compared to just one copy found in humans (file picture)

And Dr Lynch hopes his research could help strengthen human resistance to cancer.

‘It may be possible to develop a drug that mimics the function of the TP53 gene,’ he said.

‘The next steps are to figure out precisely how these extra copies are working in the cell, and if there are other genes with elephant specific changes in evolved in their cancer resistance.’

The research was published on BioRxiv, the online science network.