VIRAL CANCER: In a thin slice of a prostate cancer specimen, the brown-stained cells are the malignant cells that express virus proteins.
Image: R. SCHLABERG/H. M. THAKER
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The cause of prostate cancer, which infects one in six U.S. men in their lifetimes, has long eluded researchers. A new study presents a convincing argument that prostate cancer, like some other cancers, including cervical cancer, lymphoma and sarcomas, might be linked to a virus.
Researchers, reporting in a study that will be published online tomorrow in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the retrovirus xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) was present in about a quarter of cancerous prostate cells—and just 6 percent of control cells, which suggests a possible relationship. Additionally, "the virus is more likely to be present the more aggressive the prostate cancer is," says Ila Singh, a co-author of the study and an associate professor in pathology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
The link between viruses and some cancers has been accepted for decades, and according to Joseph DeRisi, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute—and who wasn't involved in the report—some 15 percent of cancers are now known to be linked to viruses. Previous research in DeRisi's lab had described the presence of XMRV in prostate cancers a few years ago, but small sample sizes and lack of a non-cancerous control group prevented definitive correlation.
For such a common cancer—one that kills 3 percent of men worldwide—this is the first viral link to be found. "It's the only viral candidate for prostate cancer," says Singh.
The virus is a gammaretrovirus, which has been known to cause cancer in some animals, including rodents, cats and monkeys, but had not previously been found in humans. Retroviruses can integrate onto the chromosomes of a host, and if they happen to land on a cellular gene that controls growth, it can become overactive, "and you get a tumor," explains Singh.
Singh and her team also determined that the virus is not linked to a genetic mutation, as had previously been assumed—a finding that means all men are susceptible.
To find the viral link, the researchers built on the previous findings of XMRV in prostate cancer and tested 233 samples of prostate cancer cells and 101 benign control sample cells. "We have shown that the virus is actually present," Singh says. Her team's next step is to figure out whether this correlation is in fact causation.
"I think that's going to take a long time and a lot of work to resolve," DeRisi says. He notes that news of the findings is intriguing, and says that the result "raises the possibility of a more causal role."
Researchers are still unsure of the mechanisms at work in XMRV and how men might get it in the first place. Discovering how the virus is transmitted might help Singh and others better understand how it goes to work in the prostate cells. "What is really important to know," says DeRisi, is "whether XMRV is something all people are exposed to."
Finding the route of transmission might also pave the way for preventative measures. If it turns out to be sexually transmitted, protective measures might help decrease its prevalence. But as a more sure-fire method, would a simple vaccine, akin to that being used to ward off human papillomavirus (HPV) be possible if the virus is established as a cause of the cancer? "We hope that we could do something like that," Singh says.
If the virus does indeed turn out to be the culprit, at least behind the most aggressive forms of prostate cancer, the discovery might not mean much for men who have already been diagnosed. "It means a lot more, probably, for prevention," Singh says. However, she notes, "If you could diagnose the virus before the person has cancer, that may be something." Future testing technologies could also be useful for screening donated blood, which is already tested for lymphoma and leukemia-causing agents.
In the meantime, Singh's team is not abandoning the rest of the body. The virus is "absolutely worth looking for" in other places, she says. The team is studying breast cancer and hundreds of other cancers to see if this same virus might be at work. Given its discovery in the prostate, researchers are keen to see if it is encouraged in the presence of hormones like testosterone.
Despite the broad hunt for the virus and its origins, Singh and her team are especially focused on "experiments that will bring us closer to proving that the virus is a cause—or not." And that alone might keep the researchers busy, with thousands of integration sites to sequence and a growing mass of questions still unanswered.
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19 Comments
Add CommentThe implication of a gammaretrovirus in prostate cancer indicates the necessity of protection in sexual contact much the same as for the herpes virus and HIV. Ultimately we may have to more seriously reconsider abstinence education as the most effective means of prevention on a worldwide scale.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat news if a vaccine for a virus can stop a high percent of prostate cancer then in the future all we need to do to protect ourselves from prostate cancer is a simple flu-like shot -- that would be an extraordinary discovery.
If a simple vaccine is developed it would save millions of lives worldwide and would rate above the polio vaccine as one of the greatest discoveries in medicine of all time.
And what about the works of the late Dr Hulda Clark, These never dared mentioned in scientific circles, and attacked by mainstream medicines gatekeepers. with her bold 700 page 2007 work on the causes and pathways of all cancers, the virus may play a part, but is not the cause. An inflamed prostate allows easy entry for a cancer nucleus and cancer complex to start the malignancy. The prostate is inflamed by the allergens acetic acid, ie ALL vinegar, and the plant phenol, naringenin,as in oranges and tangerines. Parasites and bacteria bring in viruses, and that is where these scientists may have discovered this. so, Why wait for a vaccine for a virus when there are mutiple causes and pathways, which now now have been precisely identified, and can easily be interrupted. The resonance comparison work of Dr Clark is light years ahead of other researchers, using crude tools, and lookig for single causes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisif you have a computer you can help find a cure
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/
There have been serveral decisive rebuttals of Clark's absurd ramblings. The suggestions that her work is never mentioned in scientific circles is scarcely compatible with the claim that she has been attacked by "mainstream medicines gatekeepers". The simple fact is, her claims wee given a fair hearing but this just confirmed that they were utterly implausible and entirely without merit.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor further information see - http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/clark.html and http://www.geocities.com/healthbase/parasitosis.html
Read "Dr. Mary's Monkey:" How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses are Linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, ... Assassination and Emerging Global Epidemics. Then you'll see that the "causation" is the SV-40 virus-contaminated polio vaccine given to all US school children in the 1950s and 1960s.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRespectfully:-
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've always Believed that even with the incidence & onset of the AIDS Virus that ANY VIRUS (Which is NOT a Living Biological Organism per se & therefore can only be *CONTROLLED/HELD IN CHECK" rather than Dispatched & Killed off) is ONLY opportunistic & able to *Infect* only those organisms with already compromised & Weakened Immune Systems (Commensurate with advanced Age, Present disease, Life-Style, Dietary aspects, etcetera).
The ONLY Combat against a Virus (Contrary to all the hype & *SPIN* to the facts otherwise promulgated by the white coated Witch-doctors) is a HEALTHY Diet, a HEALTHY Immune System...Hand in Glove Logical Thinking.
From the *HEAD* Downward & from the Inside OUT comes Health, wealth, & contentment (Knowledge first, then inside *health* Translated to the outside).
WilliamStoert is Right....Promiscuity & the *Free Love* Liberal Doctrine of the 60's has merely reared its ugly unmasked head along with all it's myriad of step children:- Dis-ease both physical & Mental, Dis-ease social & political.
Reap what is sown....sadly is true...& for the religious NUTs...I am agnostic...Although I DO believe in Natural Self Evident LAW.
Eat Like a Jackal?.....you'll end up looking AND Smelling like one if not entirely ACTING like one as well.
It's time to get BACK to Moral & Respectful Basics People.
In the board-room, in the Bed-room, & in the social Rooms of Life, discourse & social Intercourse (I HAD to use that last one don't you know?)
Cheers for a great Article otherwise.!!
"I Believe & I am SURE that we ALL Can do Some Thing for just Love & Peace" Okinagwan Songstress Cocco
Ken Campbell. You are very naive to believe what mainstream medicines/big farmas paid quack-watch puts out, They have inumerable law-suits against them, ie Lyme Society. their top quack, a failed psychiatrist, Steven Barrett, spends his time either huning down natural cures to deride, not only Dr Clark, or spends his time in court defending himself for defamation. But that is what he is paid to do. By the sound of you comment, I would hazard a guess that you are one of the misinformation/attack all natural cures gatekeepers,with your typical insults, but not challenging any specifics of dr Clarks work. Maybe her ssncrchrometer desnt exist, for resonance comparisonfor precise identification of parasites, bacteria, virus, jeavy metals, dyes, chromosome damage etc. (I have one) I wonder what you will do when you or a loved one gets cancer, and I also wonder why most US doctors would refuse chemo?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSubject: Feline Leukemia Virus, possible Airborne jump to Humans? Cat dander allergy..an immune response?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://nwseed.com/index.php?option=com_cats&page=Feline_leukemia_virus.html
Great.
You bozos argue on who is right and who is a quack or not and completely miss the point.
A possible causal agent for prostate cancer (others too?) has been identified. This is significant and may result in a mode of treatment eventually. There is already a feline vaccine for a very similar virus (FeLV)
What is not clear is how the virus gets into humans. In cats, it is transmitted like a flu virus. In humans? Hard to tell, depends on the strength of someones immune system I would guess.
In any case, another step towards IDing the cause and a cure.
Subject: Feline Leukemia Virus, possible Airborne jump to Humans? Cat dander allergy..an immune response?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://nwseed.com/index.php?option=com_cats&page=Feline_leukemia_virus.html
Great.
You bozos argue on who is right and who is a quack or not and completely miss the point.
A possible causal agent for prostate cancer (others too?) has been identified. This is significant and may result in a mode of treatment eventually. There is already a feline vaccine for a similar virus (FeLV)...still hit and miss on efficacy though.
What is not clear is how the virus gets into humans. In cats, it is transmitted like a flu virus. In humans? Hard to tell, depends on the strength of someones immune system I would guess. H1N1 manager to jump....why not this one?
In any case, another step towards IDing the cause and a cure.
The thing that's been forgotten here is that there is a sizable population which makes its living on the sickness of others. Are you so selfish as to deny them their daily bread and butter? Do we dare upset the applecart by curing disease?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll this research has been done from 1920 to 1939 and was suppressed by big pharma in the name of big money. Photos showing this and many others to one quarter a micron before the electron microscope are now well known.The name is ROYAL RIFE probably the greatest man in medical science.Look him up on the net.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisif you actually go check on the Polio vaccine...you may wish to retract.. seems ALL cases of Polio for many years have been the vaccine strain!( NO wild strains) and shedding from vaccinated people..oops!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisoh and the early ones contained cancer causing particles, Salk admitted that himself.Polio is a waterborne problem, cleaner water/hygeine was already lowering the victim count...before! the vaccine.
another Vaccine..umm NOPE! Gardasil is doing enough damage thanks, wonder what will happen when MEN are due to get it, and They start dropping off too? and the Inventor has a LIST of strains(ready named and patented)he plans to sell over time...continued income stream, how handy.
quackwatch itself has some credibility issues.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisH1N1 did NOT JUMP from anywhere, its a lab created blend.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCDC admits to knowing, and Tacitly approving of "mock up " viral brews being used to Prime! the population, using viruses on purpose that society has no normal/natural way of aquiring.
hey, it keeps the CDC NIH and WHO and all the Pharma crew really happy, funded and profitable.
CDC also admits that Live attenuated and squalene is a risk.. for illness caused by the vac, and viral shedding to Animals!! and people....but as pandemic is declared it becomes OK??? to use.
yeah right...
The facts: In prostate cancer
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1/4 have the murine retrovirus DNA.
In normal controls 3/50 have detectable murine retrovirus DNA (this could be the group that develops prostate cancer in the future).
3/4 Prostate cancers do not have the murine retrovirus DNA - possibilities include alteration of the DNA from the retrovirus, similar viruses involved not part of probe used by research team, etc.
Hulda Clarke never bothered with facts - conning people is all about belief which overrides rationality.
FeLV and XMRV (feline/murine) leukemias seemingly are zoonotic diseases. Has anyone attempted to compare the genetic profile of these two viruses?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlchemists found that Silver Killed the bubonic plague in the middle ages, ever since then in Europe the utensils were made out of silver. Silver has been proven to be anti viral and anti bacterial.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisResearch has proven that noble Metals can be made into Nano Particles which are 9-12 atoms per particle size, however this process demands the use of chemical hydroxides, chlorides, Nitrates, peroxides, and even Caustic Soda (Lye).
Even more recent research has proven that not only can gold be made into Nano Particles, but it can be made into colloidal monatomic form, in water without the use of any chemicals or preservatives.
Monatomic simply means 1 atom per particle. Most experts agree, and so do many manufacturers of colloidal products that A single atom in a particle is more effective than the larger nano particles that most producers of Colloidal Gold or Colloidal Silver make.
The smaller the better! Why? Because atoms enter into the heart of bacteria much easier than Nano Particles. A nano particle is much too large to do any good. It’s like a baseball trying to enter into a basket ball. An Atom is like a BB entering into a basket ball! More efficient, more effective and more perfect!
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Alchemists found that Silver Killed the bubonic plague in the middle ages, ever since then in Europe the utensils were made out of silver. Silver has been proven to be anti viral and anti bacterial.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisResearch has proven that noble Metals can be made into Nano Particles which are 9-12 atoms per particle size, however this process demands the use of chemical hydroxides, chlorides, Nitrates, peroxides, and even Caustic Soda (Lye).
Even more recent research has proven that not only can gold be made into Nano Particles, but it can be made into colloidal monatomic form, in water without the use of any chemicals or preservatives.
Monatomic simply means 1 atom per particle. Most experts agree, and so do many manufacturers of colloidal products that A single atom in a particle is more effective than the larger nano particles that most producers of Colloidal Gold or Colloidal Silver make.
The smaller the better! Why? Because atoms enter into the heart of bacteria much easier than Nano Particles. A nano particle is much too large to do any good. It’s like a baseball trying to enter into a basket ball. An Atom is like a BB entering into a basket ball! More efficient, more effective and more perfect!
True Chemical Free colloidal products that have real effects have 3000 PPM or More! Having chemical free colloids is extremely important and you can have the desired results without the risk of contracting side effects that have been reported.
Just do a an internet search on Colloidal Silver 3000 PPM, Colloidal Monatomic Gold, or Colloidal Monatomic Silver, Colloidal Gold 3000 PPM and other Noble Metals such as Colloidal Iridium and Ruthenium for more info.
The bottom line: Gold, Silver and other noble metals in Colloidal 3000 PPM or Monatomic Form may be good for health, anti-aging, and have been reported to be antiviral and anti bacterial and even pure antioxidants!