No viral cause for breast cancer and brain tumours

It has been scientifically proven that about 15 per cent of all cancer cases are the result of viral infection, but many researchers believe that even more cancers could be caused by viruses.

Among other theories, it is suggested that the Epstein-Barr virus could be a possible cause of breast cancer and that the cytomegalovirus might cause the malignant brain tumour glioblastoma.

“There is some controversy in that we have not found any viruses in these forms of cancer, but if there were any viral involvement in breast cancer and glioblastoma, it is likely that we would have found some trace of it. We have based our research on American material, which is extremely comprehensive,” says Erik Larsson, who is a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.

The study was published in the highly-regarded scientific journal “Nature Communications”. The study involved the researchers using powerful computers to conduct in-depth analysis of 700 billion DNA sequences from more than 4,000 tumours.

“We conducted an unbiased search for viruses in 19 different types of cancer. The analysis has neatly confirmed the links that are already known, which effectively confirms that we are using the right method,” says Erik Larsson.

The result of the study is a massive chart of viral presence in cancer. Among other things, the study was able to confirm that liver cancer is often caused by the hepatitis virus, and that the human papilloma virus causes cervical cancer. The study also shows that viral infection also causes major adaptations in the tumour cell, and that virus-positive tumours from widely different organs can therefore display considerable similarities.

The article The landscape of viral expression and host gene fusion and adaptation in human cancer was published online on 1 October.

Contact:
Erik Larsson, researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy, the University of Gothenburg
+4631-786 6942
+46736-735 735
erik.larsson@gu.se
Weitere Informationen:
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/131001/ncomms3513/full/ncomms3513.html

Media Contact

Torsten Arpi idw

More Information:

http://www.gu.se

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors