- Almost half of all Australian women with breast cancer
have been exposed to a virus which researchers believe could be implicated
in the disease.
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- Sydney scientists have uncovered what could be a link
between breast cancer and a virus known as HHMMTV.
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- Despite what most people are now led to believe, only
5 per cent of breast cancer cases have been linked to genetics. Other causes
are largely unknown.
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- Studies by the Prince of Wales Hospital, results of which
were released yesterday, show at least 42 per cent of breast cancer tissue
samples tested positive for the virus.
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- Only 2 per cent of healthy breast tissue tested positive.
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- The researchers warned though that there is no causal
link yet established and the virus may as easily be a result of the cancer
as a cause.
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- "Hereditary breast cancer has been estimated to
account for only 5 per cent of all cases," said the study's author
Caroline Ford from the University of NSW and Prince of Wales Hospital Virology
Laboratory.
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- "In other words, we have little idea what causes
19 out of 20 cases of breast cancer.
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- "We showed for the first time that this virus plays
an important role in breast cancer cases in Australia by demonstrating
a strong link between this virus and breast cancer in the Australian population.
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- "Further studies by our group have shown that this
virus appears to be associated with more severe forms of breast cancer,
and is only found in cancerous and not in normal breast tissue from women
with breast cancer."
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- Many cancers have now been linked to viruses such as
hepatitis and liver cancer and the human papilloma virus and cervical cancer.
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- Breast is the most common cancer in Australian women,
affecting one in 11.
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- "Bearing in mind it is preliminary work, so people
shouldn't get too excited about it.
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- "All it is doing so far is showing an association
between the virus and breast cancer," said Ms Ford.
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- "It should not affect people's treatment or scare
people into getting screened for the virus.
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- "But I do think we are on to something interesting
and viruses may be far more important than we thought."
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- The project supervising researcher Dr Margaret Faedo
believes the virus is significant.
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- "The whole field of infection and cancer is very
interesting... if we find a link we can get control," she said.
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- "We now want to look at mechanistic aspects ñ
how could it possibly cause cancer?"
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- More than 50 per cent of male breast cancer samples also
tested positive for HHMMTV.
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- If a virus was found responsible for the majority of
breast cancers then vaccines could be developed.
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- Professor William Rawlinson, head of virology at Prince
of Wales, claimed the work on this virus ñ funded by the Cancer
Council ñ was now among the top four research areas in his department.
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- "To be honest I am still highly sceptical, and that
is a good way to be. You have to put a lot of effort into trying to prove
it," he said.
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- "We are trying to push forward that there are multiple
causes. You don't necessarily get the disease because you have the virus."
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- © Mirror Australian Telegraph Publications
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- http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6986112%255E21302,00.html
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- Comment
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- From Dave
- 8-19-3
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- More on the news story out of Australia today on a virus
connection to many breast cancers...
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- http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/3/2/81
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- http://www.sciencenow.org.au/fresh/ford.htm#_Toc47280248
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- human homologue of the mouse mammary tumour virus
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- H H M M T V
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- This sounds like a bit of validation to what Royal Rife
was doing in 1930's.
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- And it may in fact have been MMTV which Rife was using;
I recall it said that he had to irradiate it first before he was able to
get it to culture; it may have mutated by the time he was working with
it.
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- Dave
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