Presence of human papilloma viruses (HPVs) in prostate tumors suggests countries should encourage universal vaccination against HPV infections. A literature review published by James Lawson and Wendy Glenn from the University of New South Wales in Australia suggests human papilloma viruses (HPVs) may have a causal role in prostate cancer. September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. To learn more about prostate cancer, let’s explore the findings from this literature review and examine other risk factors associated with the disease, as well as steps that men can take to help reduce their risk. Prostate Cancer: What You Need to Know The prostate is a gland found only in males. It sits just below the bladder and in front of the rectum. When cells in the prostate begin to grow out of control, prostate cancer can develop.1  According to the American Cancer Society, approximately one in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime.2 A man’s age, race and ethnicity, and family history can all contribute to his risk for developing prostate cancer, with the disease most likely to affect men who are older than 65 as well as African American men or Caribbean men of African ancestry.3 Prostate cancer is often found before symptoms appear. However, if a man experiences any of the following symptoms, its recommended that you make an appointment with a trusted health care provider: Trouble urinating, such as a slow or weak urinary stream or the urge to urinate more often Blood in the urine or semen Trouble getting an erection Pain in the hips, back, chest, or other areas  Weakness or numbness in the legs or feet Loss of bladder or bowel control  Although these symptoms are often caused by conditions other than prostate cancer, it is important to speak with your health care provider to determine the specific cause of your symptoms.4 Prostate Cancer and HPV: What the Research Tells Us In their literature review, which was published in Infectious Agents and Cancer in July, Lawson and Glenn examined the results of 26 studies conducted between 1980-2020 that looked at HPVs and their links to prostate cancer.  Eight of the 26 studies examined indicated that the prevalence of high risk HPV DNA was significantly higher in prostate cancers compared to normal and benign prostate controls. Furthermore, the more recent studies analyzed — those conducted after the year 2000 — showed that 231 of 1,071 prostate cancers (nearly 22 percent) were HPV positive.5 Lawson and Glenn also found that high risk HPV types 16 and 18, which are known to cause cervical cancer in women and can be prevented by the HPV vaccine, were identified in normal, benign, and malignant prostate tissues.5 Although HPV was previously known to cause other, rare cancers in men, its causal role in prostate cancer — which is expected to cause more than 33,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2020 — greatly expands the repercussions associated with contracting the virus.2 However, while more research is needed to understand the exact mechanisms for how HPV infection might lead to prostate cancer, the authors assert that the evidence compiled in […]

Prostate cancer is, after skin cancer, the most common cancer among men and the second biggest cancer killer for men in the United States. It’s typically an older man’s cancer with approximately 60 percent diagnoses in men over 65, with the average age being 66. As cancers go, prostate cancer has one of the better prognosis: the five-year survival rate for most men with local or regional prostate cancer is nearly 100 percent. However, for men diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, that number falls to 30 percent. An estimated 174,650 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and for reasons still to be discovered, the risk of prostate cancer is about 60 percent higher in African-American men than in white men. September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and it is worth noting several advances in the field. New drugs, therapies, tests and techniques hold much promise in catching the cancer in its early stages, and in treatment if it has advanced. Testing Researchers in both the United States and United Kingdom developed two new urine tests for aggressive prostate cancer, promising a tool that is both more accurate than the current blood test and less invasive than a biopsy. Investigators at the University of East Anglia in the UK developed a urine test to diagnose aggressive prostate cancer and predict whether patients will require treatment up to five years earlier than standard clinical methods. It is hoped this new tool can help avoid biopsies and other invasive procedures for low-risk patients. Independently, researchers at UCLA were able to identify a biomarker using microRNA naturally sloughed off from the prostate in urine, which may give insight into tumor development, stage, and possible treatments. Another test involving RNA comes from the University of Virginia; researchers identified a type of RNA key to controlling the growth and progression of prostate cancer. Dubbed HULLK, this RNA is regulated by androgens (male sex hormones) that stimulate its production. Cells that overproduce HULLK, that is, those associated with the most aggressive cases of prostate cancer, are hypersensitive to androgens, the researchers found. Also discovered was that there is more HULLK in tumor samples from patients with advanced prostate cancer. Investigators found that decreasing the level of HULLK in cultured prostate cancer cells slows tumor cell growth. Warnings Discovering what not to do is an important part of medicine, and a study out of Philadelphia found an ominous link between a popular prostate cancer therapy and mental health. Because prostate cancer is fueled by androgens, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a standard treatment. Doctors in Philadelphia found  ADT could have links to both Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Of the 154,089 ADT patients observed, 13 percent were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and 22 percent with dementia. Therapies Metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains a deadly disease. Anaheim investigators combined targeted radionuclide therapy 177Lu PSMA 617 with the tumor-specific radiation sensitizer idronoxil to assess responses in patients with heavily treated mCRPC; in doing so they found nearly 70 percent of all patients saw a more than […]