Prostate Cancer News - 15th September 2009 - super-selective intraprostatic androgen deprivation, watchful waiting, xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus, stem cell research

General Prostate Cancer and Lifestyle News

Several newspapers have today ran a report on the link between the sexually transmitted xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus and prostate cancer. Research has shown that around 25% of tissue samples from people who have cancer of the prostate test positive for this virus. It has been put forward that the xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus may therefore be responsible for some forms of the condition. The Ocregister carries further details on this, including the possibility of producing vaccines that would prevent infection by the virus, and hopefully reduce the number of prostate cancer cases.

Reuters reports that science researchers have identified a stem cell that leads to the development of prostate cancer. Although their work was carried out in mice, the Colombia university research team expects their findings to enhance the understanding of the development of prostate cancers and eventually lead to new treatments. Interestingly the stem cells that they identified do not require the male sex hormones androgens to stimulate growth.

Science daily reports on research into watchful waiting carried out at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The team began a cohort study on over 51,000 men in 1986; sending out a questionnaire every two years. From the start of the study until completion in 2007, just over 3,300 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, 10% of whom opted to carry out watchful waiting. After a ten year period fewer than half of these patients had not required any further prostate therapy to treat their cancer.

Latest Prostate Cancer Research

Gat and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel take a look at the use of super-selective intraprostatic androgen deprivation as a treatment for prostate cancer and report their findings in Andrologia. Testosterone is known to be one of the key hormones involved in the development and progression of prostate cancer yet little is known about the mechanisms by which it acts. The researchers have discovered a new route for free testosterone to reach the prostate and have put forward the use of super-selective intraprostatic androgen deprivation therapy as a possible treatment option for prostate cancer; they found that the treatment was able to both stop and reverse the growth of prostate cells.

Although not research per se, Harvey and colleagues have published a review in the BMC Urology journal on the diagnostic accuracy of prostate specific antigens. They conclude that although the use of PSA testing plays a very important role in the early detection of cancers (especially when used with other techniques such as a digital rectum exam) that it results in quite a significant amount of both false positives and false negatives based upon prostate biopsy results.

Featured Prostate Cancer Resource Site

This weeks featured site is cancerhelp. This UK based site carries a lot of information on the prostate, and of symptoms and treatments of prostate cancer. It even has a guide on how to cope with life following diagnosis and treatments for the condition.

Recommended Reading

This weeks recommended reading takes a look at how to interpret your Gleason Score that you are given following a biopsy. The page clearly describes the Gleason grades that you are given and how they are related to changes at the cellular level.


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