Segal Cancer Center, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Program in Cancer Genetics, Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are sexually transmitted and have been associated with several human carcinomas especially cervical and colorectal. On the other hand, a small number of studies have examined the presence of high-risk HPV in human prostate cancer tissues. Currently, the presence and role of high-risk HPV infections in prostate carcinogenesis remain unclear because of the limited number of investigations. This raises the question whether high-risk HPV infections play any role in human prostate cancer development. However, other investigators and our group were able to immortalize normal and cancer prostate epithelial cells in vitro by E6/E7 of HPV type 16. In this paper, we propose the hypothesis that normal and cancer prostate epithelial cells are susceptible to persistent HPV infections; therefore, high-risk HPV infections play an important role in the progression of prostate cancer. We believe that an international collaboration of epidemiological studies and more molecular biology investigations are necessary to answer these important questions.

Written by
Al Moustafa AE.

Reference
Med Hypotheses. 2008 May 9. Epub ahead of print.

PubMed Abstract
PMID:18468811

UroToday.com Prostate Cancer Section

Please log-in or register in order to submit comments.

Powered by AkoComment!