ABSTRACT
As the prevalence of cotton-top colon carcinomas increased in the 1970s and early 1980s, a second oak ridge associated universities (ORAU) report identified a then-current total of 14 colonic malignancies in 109 cotton-top tamarin necropsies; no colonic neoplasms were found in the other species, Saguinus fuscicollis, saddle-back tamarin, or Callithrix jacchus, the common marmoset. The probability seems very low that a single extrinsic infectious agent could etiologically be the sole cause of either cotton-top tamarin idiopathic colitis or spontaneous colon cancer. It is remotely conceivable that each cotton-top tamarin in the world could be carrying the same virus in its genetic make-up that might account for the susceptibility to one or both diseases. Most large bowel cancer investigators in both humans and experimental animals believe that environmental factors contribute significantly to the etiology of colonic carcinoma. As knowledge of colonic carcinoma diagnosis became more widespread, attention was directed toward recognition of this disease.
