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A discovery of a link between prostate cancer and a virus raises concern that the virus infection may be an indicator of malignant tumors that need immediate treatment according to researchers.

Scientists at the University of Utah and Columbia University discovered the link between the two illnesses. In this weeks issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has the publication of the research.
Dr. Ila R. Singh an Associate Professor of Pathology from the University of Utah, and the lead author of the report on the study concerning the linking of the virus xenotropic murine leukemia (XMRV) stated “We’re not making any causal association at this moment. There probably are multiple causes of prostate cancer, but for the first time we have analyzed prostate cancer and normal prostate tissue and found cancers are much more likely to have the virus.”

Two years ago the Cleveland Clinic and the University of California, San Francisco reported the link between the XMRV and prostate cancer where they found the virus in the cells around the tumors.

The study consisted of three hundred thirty-four samples from the prostate, 233 were known to be cancerous and 101 were known to have benign enlargement. It turned out that 23 percent of the cancerous samples had tested positive with the XMRV, and just four percent of the benign samples tested with the virus.

With the results of this study it may prove that testing for the presence of the XMRV may help treat prostate cancer patients.

A Professor of Cancer Biology at Cleveland Clinic, Robert A. Silverman stated “Finding it in cancer cells makes it easier to reconcile with the idea of a cancer-causing virus than in our prior study. The prior study found the virus in cells surrounding the cancer. We can’t say with certainty that XMRV is a cause of cancer, but it still is a candidate for cancer-causing virus.”

Silverman was one of the first researchers who first reported the link between XMRV and prostate cancer.
With these studies it is giving men hope for future results of treatments that can help diminish the illness.