UPDATE - Issue 39 - Winter 2010
First evidence of virus in cancerous prostate cells
In a finding with potentially major implications for identifying a viral cause of prostate cancer, researchers at the University of Utah and Columbia University medical schools have reported that a type of virus known to cause leukaemia and sarcomas in animals has been found for the first time in malignant human prostate cancer cells.
If further investigation proves the virus, XMRV (xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus), causes prostate cancer in people, it would open opportunities for developing diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapies for treating the cancer.
'We found that XMRV was present in 27% of prostate cancers we examined and that it was associated with more aggressive tumours,' said Ila R Singh, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology at University of Utah and the study's senior author. 'We still don't know that this virus causes cancer in people, but that is an important question we're going to investigate.'
Singh and her fellow researchers examined more than 200 human prostate cancers, and compared them to more than 100 non-cancerous prostate tissues. They found 27% of the cancers contained XMRV, compared to only 6% of the benign tissues. The viral proteins were found almost exclusively in malignant prostatic cells, suggesting that XMRV infection may be directly linked to the formation of tumours.