Prostate cancer may be caused by virus

[ramses]

Prostate cancer may be caused by virus, study indicates
September 18th, 2009 in Medicine & Health / Cancer

Mounting evidence indicates that prostate cancer is an infectious disease caused by a recently identified virus.

It will be some time before researchers can definitively prove whether the virus causes prostate cancer. And even more time to develop a successful vaccine if it does. But the National Institutes of Health's cancer division is impressed enough with the data to encourage researchers to cooperate and collaborate on this topic.

Tabitha M. Powledge, a science journalist based near Washington, D.C., says her interviews of leading cancer experts leave her with the impression that few would be particularly surprised to discover prostate cancer is an infectious disease.

"There is a lot of indirect evidence from epidemiology and genetics that prostate cancer may turn out to be among the several cancers that are now proven infectious," says Powledge, who specializes in writing about basic research.

"The research does offer hope there will be ways in the future to prevent prostate cancer just as there are vaccines today that prevent cervical cancer."

Q. What have researchers identified as the potential virus?

A. The suspect is xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus, similar to viruses known to cause cancer in animals. Researchers at Columbia University and the University of Utah found the virus in more than a quarter of some 300 prostate cancer tissue samples, especially in malignant cells. Let me stress, it is not yet proven that prostate cancer is a viral disease.

Q. Could there be more than one type of prostate cancer?

A. Ila Singh, from the University of Utah, senior author of that study, pointed out clinicians badly need better tools for distinguishing between prostate cancers that are potentially deadly and those that develop so slowly that the affected men die of something else.

Q. Experts you interviewed have said this virus could be sexually transmitted?

A. Yes. One bit of epidemiological evidence is that men with a high rate of sexually transmitted diseases tend to be more likely to get prostate cancer than men without a strong history of STDs. Another bit of epidemiological evidence surrounds aspirin. Researchers tell me men who take daily aspirin to reduce inflammation for heart problems also tend to get less prostate cancer. There is a reason, from that result, to believe a virus may be involved because a virus causes inflammation.

Q. If scientists can establish an infectious cause for prostate cancer, would men potentially be able to prevent this common deadly disease?

A. The new paper, published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," emphasizes how finding a viral cause for prostate cancer could impact biomedical research. It would trigger a number of studies for vaccine and other therapies.

Q. What about the men who have prostate cancer who do not die?

A. Researchers are looking for a marker that will distinguish men with aggressive cancer Â- those in serious health trouble Â- from those who don't need to do anything.

Q. A vaccine that protects against cervical cancer is now suggested for young women _ girls not yet in puberty _ on the theory they should be immunized before they risk getting exposed. As scientists work on studies about whether prostate cancer is caused by a virus _ and if it is, as they develop a vaccine _ what can men do?

A. Well, keep in mind that we don't know for sure yet that prostate cancer is an infectious disease or that it's an STD. But wearing a condom is always a sensible choice. That's the suggestion to lower the risk of getting any sexually transmitted disease _ and there are lots of them.

http://www.physorg.com/news172482392.html

[coinflipper_21]

It's entirely possible that a virus may be the cause. Medicine is slow to change.

The Australian doctor who discovered that most ulcers were caused by a bacterial infection was almost laughed out of medicine for 18 years until major research hospitals got around to replicating his research.

Then there was Ignaz Semmelweis, the doctor who discovered that infections would not spread in hospitals if doctors would simply wash their hands between patients. He was, for the most part, laughed out of medicine and his work was not accepted until after his death.

The don't call it the practice of medicine for nothing.

[Paolo]

Let's hope they don't develop a vaccine for it, if it is a virus.

The flu shots and HPV virus shots are already doing enough damage without another crackpot-let's-make-money-off-scared-people vaccine on the market.

[Addicted]

I think I've been watching to many of those Alien movies lately.. I imagine the xenomorphs, after reading the word 'xenotropic'

if it is something that can spread from prostate to prostate, would that mean it only effects homosexual/bi-sexual males?

[coinflipper_21]

Originally Posted by Paolo

Let's hope they don't develop a vaccine for it, if it is a virus.

The flu shots and HPV virus shots are already doing enough damage without another crackpot-let's-make-money-off-scared-people vaccine on the market.

Paolo, I agree with you on many things, but I have to disagree on this one. I've been following the CDC weeklies and the laboratory confirmed cases and deaths from H1N1 virus are above the epidemic threshold and almost twice the national baseline for seasonal flu. Most of the deaths have been in the 25 to 49 age group followed by the 5 to 25 age group. Interestingly, over one third of the reported cases are people with asthma.

They are not trying to scare us into getting the vaccine for the benefit of the drug companies, they are scared themselves. Some of the deaths were health care workers who poo pooed the idea that Swine Flu was anything different or more serious than regular flu and declined the vaccine. With all the crosstalk on the web they are having difficulty getting people to take this seriously. Is it going to be another 1918 flu? Probably not. The general standard of medical care is far better than it was then. Can it get real bad, in relative terms? They are sure of it.

I know that since the middle of the 1960s most people have considered any major pronouncement by a government agency to be a lie. I have no intention of opening the can of worms about what administration is the worst offender, but lets just say that the current and future administrations have a hard row to hoe to get people to believe anything they say, especially with everyone being able to voice their opinion instantly on the web.

I will tell you this, with a chronic medical condition (An inoperable brain tumor suppressed by medication.) I have been getting my recommended flu shots for 10 years. In that time I have not had so much as a cold. This is with my wife working around school age children. I have also had the pneumonia vaccine and, because of travel, the usual vaccines recommended for travel to third world countries (typhoid, hepatitis, etc, etc) and have had no negative effects whatsoever from any of the vaccinations. Will I get the vaccine even though I am over 65? Yes. I have a chronic medical condition, my wife has asthma and she works around school age children. We feel that the risks from the flu are greater than the risks of the vaccine.

Nothing personal, Paolo, I just disagree.

Respectfully submitted, Coinflipper

[Arab Nights]

Coinflipper has reasoned comments. In all honesty, I am torn. I do not know what is right. I do know that last year I got the flu vaccine and promptly got sickish. My wife works caring for old people and said that she has seen many, many times that they get a flu vaccine and then get sick and even die. Three weeks ago I was gathering info in a government office in our fair state capital. One lady came back from lunch and was assigned to help me. She was obviously sick. I had to ask her to not cough on me because I was flying in a few days and absolutely could not miss that flight. She appologized, saying she had just got a flu shot. As she said that, the FEDEX guy was delivering and said he had done flu shots two years in a row and got sick after each one. The first time he assumed it was just coincidence, but the odds of that happening a second time are a bit long. He will not be getting flu shots again.

I think I am not going to get the shot, but I am going to really try hard to stay rested and take liquid vitamin B12.

[nullorchis]

Government research has resulted in classified documents which contain reproducable and verifiable factual evidence that a virus causes people to become Republican.

[speedvogel]

For what it may be worth, many researchers feel that many, if not most cancers are caused by viruses. This is thought to be an indirect link as these viruses produce an irritation which causes the cancer.

Speed