- Michelle Roberts
- Health Editor
1 hour ago
Scientists say they have discovered bacteria in urine linked to aggressive prostate cancer.
Experts hope that this discovery will help lead to new ways to detect and even prevent these dangerous tumors.
It is too early to determine whether or not these bacteria cause cancer, and it is not just a useful marker for disease detection.
The University of East Anglia’s scientific team, which discovered this link between urine bacteria and prostate cancer, plans to do more work to find out whether eliminating this infection with antibiotics may prevent tumors.
Bacterial infections are known to play a role in the development of other cancers – a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori, for example, can trigger stomach cancer, and a range of antibiotics can help eliminate this risk.
Prostate growth
Prostate cancer is not always life-threatening. Some tumors grow too slowly to cause any problems, and can be safely left alone and simply monitored instead.
The challenge is to diagnose and quickly treat men with strong, fast-growing infections that cause harm, while sparing others unnecessary treatment.
Currently available tests, such as the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test and biopsy, cannot always predict which cancers will be harmful.
For this latest scientific discovery, published in the European Journal of Urological Oncology, researchers studied more than 600 patients with and without prostate cancer, to assess the usefulness of the urine strep test.
They identified five types of bacteria that were common in urine and tissue samples from men whose carcinoid tumors eventually became aggressive.
And they were all types of bacteria that can grow without oxygen. Some of them were completely new species, which have not yet been identified.
Two of the new bacteria found by the team are named after two of the study’s funders – Porphyromonas poppy, after the “Pop Champion Cancer Trust”, and Varibaculum prostatecancerokia (various prostate cancer), after Prostate Cancer UK.
Dr Rachel Hurst, a member of the research team, said: ‘One of the things we don’t know yet is how people become infected with these bacteria, whether they cause cancer, or whether the weakened immune response allows the bacteria to grow.
“But we hope that our findings and future work will lead to new treatment options, which can slow or prevent the progression of aggressive prostate cancer. Our work could also lay the foundations for new tests that use bacteria to predict the most effective treatment for each of the men with cancer.”
Her colleague Professor Colin Cooper, who co-led the research, told the BBC he was absolutely confident the results of the research were real – they had followed strict procedures to make sure there was no chance of contamination while they were doing the research in the lab.
It is possible that some of these bacteria secrete hormones that contribute to the development of aggressive tumors, he said.
Dr Sam Godfrey, from Cancer Research UK, said: ‘Nearly four in 10 cancers in the UK are linked to known risk factors such as smoking and obesity. But there are other cancer risk factors, such as bacteria, that we are just beginning to identify. “.
He added: “More studies are needed to determine how these bacteria participate in the growth of prostate cancer, but this research could help provide new tools for screening and prevention that will help reduce the impact of these cancers on society.”