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Common CMV Linked
To Colon Cancer

By Katrina Woznicki
UPI Science News
11-15-2

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (UPI) -- A common human virus might have some role in the development of colon cancer, according to a new, small study released Thursday.
 
Preliminary findings from researched conducted at the University of Alabama in Birmingham suggest the cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a widespread organism particularly dangerous to people with weakened immune systems, could be associated with the cellular breakdown that leads to colon cancer.
 
"This virus is strongly associated with malignant brain tumors," lead researcher Dr. Charles S. Cobbs, also a neurosurgeon with the Birmingham VA Medical Center, told United Press International. "The more I learned about virus, the more I realized it had many properties important for cancer in general."
 
As described in the Nov. 16 issue of the British journal, The Lancet, Cobbs and his team took colorectal polyps, tumors and surrounding healthy cells from 29 patients. They found proteins from the cytomegalovirus in approximately 80 percent of the polyps and in about 85 percent of the colon cancer samples.
 
"I'm not trying to say this virus is causal in colon cancer," Cobbs said. "I've just made a preliminary observation ... whether or not it's influencing the cancer remains to be determined."
 
The virus might be inducing unwanted cell behavior that could lead later to uncontrollable cell growth or cancer, Cobbs explained, but more study is needed to confirm these findings.
 
Cytomegalovirus resides in about 50 to 80 percent of the U.S. population, Cobbs said, and age and socioeconomic status are risk factors. The virus also can cause ulcers, he explained. It is a relative of the herpes virus and, like herpes or chicken pox, when an individual contracts it, the virus cannot be eradicated. It can lie dormant in a person for years or even decades and not cause any harm.
 
In people with compromised immune systems, however, such as AIDS or chemotherapy patients, the virus can wreak havoc on the gastrointestinal tract, the eyes, and the brain, Cobbs said.
 
Although the virus is common, Cobbs said people should not be worried about getting cancer from it.
 
"There's probably at least 15 coincidental things that all have to occur at once" involving this virus before cancer develops, he said.
 
Viruses have been implicated in cancers before, but Dr. Gerard Blobe, an assistant professor of medicine in pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said previous studies on the cytomegalovirus have been mixed or inconclusive.
 
"It would be a little surprising" if these findings proved to be true, he told UPI. "They've certainly been looking for causes of colon cancer. It is surprising just because it goes in contrast in what other investigators have shown, but have not really reported."
 
In fact, Blobe said of the herpes virus family, cytomegalovirus is thought to be one that does not influence cancer.
 
"I think this study would need to be investigated in larger population of individuals before we truly believe this is a cause for colon cancer," he said.
 
Copyright © 2002 United Press International. All rights reserved.







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