Health News

February 24, 2006

New research indicates that a virus may be behind some forms of prostate cancer. According to the leader of the study, Dr. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic, the possibility is real that "prostate cancer could be cuased by an infectuous disease."

Cancers as being caused by or related to specific viruses is a novel idea that has been gaining ground in recent years. Other recent edivence suggests that viruses are also behind some liver and cervical cancers. Dr. Klein will be presenting his findings at an upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology symposium in San Francisco.

The discovery was made by computer chip, the so-called gene chip. It compares cancerous tissue strands against a database of 20,000 DNA snippets of all know viruses among multiple species. What the analysis found was that men with the diseases had a highly positive match with a virus previously only found in mice. That virus is known to cause cancer in mice.

Even more interesting is the fact that these diseases may be passed on genetically, although the mechanisms for how this happens are still completely unclear. Other factors, including race and weight, also play a role in prostate cancer. According to Dr. Anthony Zietman at Massachusetts General Hospital, this discovery will mean that research "will take off in a whole new direction." For many American men, who suffer from prostate cancer more than from any other cancer, that research cannot proceed too swiftly.