Infectious cancer discovered in fish for the first time

UNITED STATES
Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 01:20 (GMT + 9)

Researchers found a transmissible clonal melanoma among the American catfish population in Lake Memphremagog, located on the border between the United States and Canada. Cancer is traditionally viewed by science as an internal failure of a specific organism—the result of the accumulation of critical mutations in cells. However, there are rare exceptions to this rule, when a cancer cell acquires the ability to spread from one individual to another. Recently, an international team of scientists expanded this list by discovering for the first time the phenomenon of clonally transmissible (infectious) cancer in fish. The results of the analysis, co-led by researchers such as Julie Dragon from the University of Vermont, were published in the journal Nature under the digital object identifier 10.1038/s41586-026-10828-6. American catfish, known scientifically as Ameiur... FULL STORY