Hen had cancer / tumor – question about safety and eggs

[genrietta]

So our hen was showing some very strange signs for the past week or so… the most disturbing was the way she was breathing opening her beak very wide grasping for air it seemed, shaking her had. Initially after reading some posts we thought its some kind of gapeworm or something like that, but we took her to an Aviary doctor who actually ran some tests and X-rays and after seeing results (which were inconclusive but disturbing) suggested we either perform surgery to try to save her or put her down and do autopsy afterwards to find out what it was.

Well we decided to put her down and the autopsy revealed that she had a large tumor and liquids in her belly - she basically had a pretty bad cancer. Why that happened - no idea, doctor said could be genetic, could be virus could be something from the environment. This is pretty disturbing because I’m now wondering if it was safe to eat her eggs at the time when she was laying (about 2-3 months ago) and makes me question the safety of other chickens we have and whether its safe to consume their eggs - who knows if they may also have or develop cancer in the future? What are your thoughts?