Prostate Cancer

Their findings describe the first documented cases of human infection with a retrovirus that is native to rodents.

The researchers discovered the virus in patients with a rare type of The patients in the study have a genetic mutation that compromised some of their natural defenses against viral infection.

Thus, the researchers said their discovery raises the possibility that increased susceptibility to viral infection may play a role in development of some cancers.

However, they emphasized that their findings by no means implicate the virus, dubbed XMRV, in causing The virus may well have flourished as a result of the failure of the defense mechanism; and other factors such as chronic inflammation may play a more direct role in the cancer.

The discovery of the new virus was made by an interdisciplinary research team led by Robert Silverman of Cleveland Clinic and HHMI investigators Joseph DeRisi and Don Ganem, both at the University of California at San Francisco.

The search for the new virus began when Silverman and his colleagues provided samples of a rare familial Read more...