. >> reporter: elephant blood from schiffman's local zoo and the ringling brothers and barnum and bailey circus. you see, most humans have only two copies of a gene called p53, which kills cancerous cells. elephants have around 40. and elephants hardly ever get cancer. does somehow involve getting p53 genes from an elephant into a human? >> that's one approach. there are other things we can do. looking for drugs that mimic the effect. >> reporter: schiffman is inspired in this bizarre collaboration by his patients. >> i'll undergo brain surgery again in two weeks. >> reporter: a recurring cancer because tony means has only one working p53. >> i have passed it on, i guess, to landon, emma and sophie. >> reporter: whose lives one day could be saved by tonka, mabel, luna and assan. nick watt, abc news, salt lake city. >> we thank nick for that story. >>> still ahead tonight, can the lottery be hacked? a lottery employee barred from playing. but investigators say that didn't stop him from helping others to win. >>> and later, dirty play? the bone-breaking slide the mets are furious about. th

joshua schiffman was the lead researcher on the study. doctor very good to have you with us. you are a peed yacht crick oncologist. a cancer survivor urs yourself. yourself. how did you decide to focus on elephants? >> we try to focus on this question of who develops cancer, and why? are a few is years ago i had an opportunity to tenant a meeting on evolution of cancer and heard that cancer rarely hav develop cancer, and possibly because of the extra copy of p-53 as you mentioned. it wasn't until a few weeks later that i returned home and i was believe it or not visiting our local utah hobo zoo with my children. they checked the elephants every week to determine about they were healthy. >> cells replicate, the dhansess of genetic splaiks. what do you find that these genes can help the elephants attack and kill the cancer cells. >> exactly. whether we took the blood from the zoo animals and rin ringling brothers, barnum and bailey circus, the elephants eliminated that cell as opposed to humans, where the cells kept replicate approximating. >> elephants can live to 200 years. d

. >> reporter: elephant blood from from schiffman's local zoo and the ringling brothers and barnum & is in town. >> the thought that our elephant could actually do something that could help pediatric cancer was an amazing one. >> reporter: you see, most humans have only two copies of a gene called p53 which kills cancerous cells. we only have two. elephants have around 40, and elephants hardly ever get cancer, so schiffman is -- >> looking for drugs that mimic the effect of having these extra copies of p53. >> reporter: schiffman is inspired in this bizarre collaboration with his pachyderm pals by his patience. >> to everyone, open their mouth and say ah. >> all: ah. >> ah, very good. >> reporter: whose lives one day could be saved by tonka, mabel, luna and assan. for "good morning america," nick watt, abc news, salt lake city. >> fascinating stuff and we thank nick for that. >>> and finally, a new way to express yourself on facebook. the site is testing six new emojis you can use instead of the simple like button. they are love, laughter, cheering, wow, sad and angry but dislike is