Elephants' cancer-fighting gene gives big clue in fight against cancer - Scientists have discovered that elephants have a large surplus of a major cancer-fighting gene - 20 copies versus one copy in humans which may help boost the fight against cancer.

The gene assists damaged cells repair themselves or self-destruct when exposed to cancer-causing substances.

However, the findings are not proof that those extra p53 genes make elephants cancer-resistant, but if future research confirms it, scientists may be able to develop drugs for humans that would mimic the effect.

Joshua Schiffman, a pediatric cancer specialist at the University of Utah, who led one of the studies, after hearing a lecture a few years ago about Peto's paradox, is seeking funds for research into treatment that mimic elephants' cancer-fighting cells.

The lecture speaker said that elephants seemed to have extra copies of p53 gene. Schiffman's patients include children with incomplete p53 genes because of a condition called Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which increases their chances of developing cancer. Therefore, Schiffman wanted to find clues from the blood of 8 elephants, Ringling Bros. circus animals and local zoo animals.

Schiffman's team and a second group of scientists pinned down the size of the elephants' surplus - 20 copies. The second team found many other species have only one copy, just like humans.

Schiffman and his colleagues examined how elephant cells reacted to radiation, compared with cells from ten patients with Li-Fraumeni syndrome and ten healthy humans.

It was found that elephant cells self-destructed at twice the rate of healthy human cells and more than five times the rate of cells from patients with the syndrome. Cells that don't self-repair or self-destruct when exposed to carcinogens become prone to developing cancer.

The work was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.