26
Jan
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A virus called XMRV which was first found in prostate cancer cells could be the cause of the disease.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, conducted by researchers at the University of Utah and U.S. Columbia, first found a virus in prostate cancer cells. This is the virus called XMRV, the second deadliest in Spain among men, so far known to cause leukemia and sarcomas in animals.
If confirmed by subsequent studies that XMRV virus is the cause of prostate cancer, would open an avenue for the development of diagnostics, vaccines and therapies to treat this disease.
R. Singh, associate professor at the University of Utah and author of the study said "the XMRV was in 27% of analyzed cases
of prostate cancer" and said he "discovered that this virus is associated with other more aggressive tumors. Singh said they still are not sure that the XMRV causes cancer in humans, but is something we will investigate.
The researchers examined 200 men with prostate cancer and compared the results with 100 samples of healthy tissue. They found that 27% of men with the disease, contained the XMRV virus, compared with 6% of healthy cases.
They also found that the predisposition to be infected by the XMRV is not related to genetic mutations as previously thought, which means that the risk of infection is greater than previously thought.
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