‘Low incidence of mutations’ reason for low cancer rate in sharks

Monash University Professor Peter Currie says the reason for the low rate of cancers in sharks is that they have a “low incidence of mutations” which cause cancers.

He said sharks having a low rate of cancers has been proposed for many years and has allowed a shark supplement and cartilage-related industry to thrive.

“We have been studying why sharks have a lower rate of cancer and to try and come up with understandings of why that perhaps might be,” Professor Currie told Sky News Australia.

“It’s not any property of the tissues or the cartilage of the sharks themselves. They actually just have a low incidence of mutations which are causing cancers.

“There is nothing inherent in any of the tissues of the shark that are cancer preventing; it is just that they themselves have this remarkable ability to have low cancer rates.”