New Virus Puts Men at Increased Risk of Prostate Cancer

Washington - A new virus has been identified that puts a man at increased risk of developing prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in American men, effecting an estimated 1 in 6.

The virus was thought only to be present in animals, putting them at risk of cancer but according to study results the virus, called XMRV can also be present in men.

For their study the researchers compared tissue data from prostates that were infected with cancer, to those who were not.

They discovered that in more than a few of the cancerous prostate tissue samples the virus was present.

“We found that XMRV was present in 27% of prostate cancers we examined and that it was associated with more aggressive tumors,” researcher Ila R. Singh, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology at the University of Utah, says in a news release.

The study can be found in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.