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First Evidence of Virus Link to Some Prostate Cancers
Written by Jacquie Strax Monday, September 07 2009 00:00
A type of virus known to cause leukemia and sarcomas in animals has been found for the first time in human prostate cancer cells, according to researchers at the University of Utah and Columbia University medical schools. Their discovery may help in identifying a viral cause of prostate cancer.This would open opportunities for developing diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapies for treating the cancer.
The researchers say they found the XMRV virus in almost a third of the prostate tumors they looked at.
"We found that XMRV was present in 27 percent of prostate cancers we examined and that it was associated with more aggressive tumors," said Ila R. Singh, M.D., Ph.D., 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."
Cancer Vaccine Plus Interleukin-7 Boosts Immune Response to Cancer
Sunday, April 26 2009 13:00
Scientists have discovered that combining interleukin-7 (IL-7) – a key component of the immune system – with a viral vaccine improves the ability of the immune system to attack tumors. A Canadian team at The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research (CFIBCR) at Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto say their discovery could be included in new clinical trials that use a patient’s own cells to destroy tumors.
New Method of Teaching Immune System to Recognize A Prostate Cancer Marker, PSMA
Monday, April 20 2009 02:26
PSMA (prostate specific membrane antigen) is a marker expressed in advanced prostate cancer in many men including men with bone metastases. Several methods of exploiting it to target cells and prostate tumors are in clinical trials or under research. Prostate cancer patients in an ongoing Phase 1 study have been treated with designer T cells modified by retroviral gene therapy.
Autopsy Study Links Prostate Cancer to Single Rogue Cell
Thursday, April 16 2009 21:08
BALTIMORE, April 16. One single cell -- a cell altered by one initial set of genetic changes -- is all it takes to begin a series of events that lead to metastatic cancer. Now, Johns Hopkins experts have tracked how the cancer process began in 33 men with prostate cancer who died of the disease. Culling information from autopsies, their study points to a set of genetic defects in a single cell that are different for each person's cancer.
Prostate Tumors Grow New Nerves
Monday, December 01 2008 17:38
Prostate cancer – and perhaps other cancers – promotes the growth of new nerves and the branching axons that carry their messages, a finding associated with more aggressive tumors, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in the first report of the phenomenon that appears today in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Previous research showed that prostate cancer follows the growth of nerves, but this is the first time that scientists have demonstrated that the tumors actually promote nerve growth.