The Contagious Taste of Cancer (historytoday.com)

Holy nightmare fuel jumpscare. Why would someone do this but at the same time knowing humans of course someone would do this.

Samuel Smith appears to have been infected by a fatal meme. I am obnoxiously in favor of free speech, but I can't deny ideas can kill in more ways than Chuck Norris.

It doesn’t seem completely out of the question that he could have received a contagious cancer. There are examples in the animal world. I believe Tasmanian devils spread facial tumors through biting. And I have heard dogs have certain transmissible cancers as well.

We have one solid example of cancer caused by members of the HPV family. The disease can be transmitted via body fluids and/or contact. So there's that.

My laymans take: Cancer is a disease of the DNA of a cell. Viruses survive by altering cellular DNA. It begs the question: How many other viruses cause cancer?

It also seems clear to me that the virus may not be the sole cause since not everybody gets cancer so it is a multi-variable problem.

Virus + X = cancer

This will be harder to nail down but with modern data tools we should be able to get there.

Makes me wonder: Is the cancer "industry" searching for causes or just after-the-fact treatment?

Some infections cause cancer-like growths or masses though they're not actually cancer. Though off the top of my head none that I would suspect would survive a trip through stomach acid.

Interestingly, there was a recent interest in a case of a surgeon who scratched himself when operating on a cancer patient, and developed cancer himself at the site of the scratch. The cancer was found to be identical to his patient's.

https://surgery.international/surgeon-diagnosed-with-patient...

The case is fairly old, from 1996. It re-surfaced recently.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199611143352004