Do other mammals get cancer?

Cancer is the unregulated mutation and growth of cells. Technically, all living organisms can become cancerous, even plants. Some organisms have evolved better mechanisms for controlling cell growth, but the main reason we don't hear about frogs and squirrels getting cancer is because no one cares enough to check the frogs and squirrels.

Anything can get cancer.

Even plants can get cancer, so yes.

There is a huge difference between "being able to manifest/contract a disease" and regularly getting it.

There are few examples of wild animals with cancer.
This isn't because no one is looking because they are looking.
It's because it is extremely rare.

	matt2224 -  27 pts -  (1 year ago)
	No, it's not extremely rare. There's no reason to think that.

Any organism with an unchecked cellular growth or reduction in apoptosis can get cancer. It is likely that some organisms cannot, however, because they lack the genes which cause the problems mentioned in the first sentence.

Insects, for example, only have stem cells. They don't produce daughter cells that have a predetermined number of cell divisions, like in human skin. So, insects are less likely to get cancer since their cells don't have the same growth genes of which cancer usually takes advantage.

BTW, just because plants were here first, doesn't mean they are simple and that "if plants can get them, so must any other organism."--that's just silly.