Virus in cattle linked to breast cancer in women

Hanne Jensen, a UC Davis professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, said that the new study only showed evidence for strong relation between the BLV virus and breast cancer in humans.

Researchers from the University of California (Berkeley campus) have indicated that the risk of developing breast cancer is 3.1 times higher if BLV is present in a woman.

In addition, Prof. Buehring shares: “The association between BLV infection and breast cancer was surprising to many previous reviewers of the study, but it’s important to note that our results do not prove that the virus causes cancer, “.

The study, which was carried out to investigate whether a bovine virus might be an initiating agent for breast cancer, compared breast tissues of breast cancer patients with that of women with no history of breast cancer. The virus can actually be transmitted very easily in between cattle via infected milk and blood, but what is interesting about it is that it has a very low infection ratio: approximately 5% of the cattle get infected and die because of the virus.

Bovine leukemia virus infects dairy and beef cattle’s blood cells and mammary tissue. This is the first time that such a link has been established by researchers.

Nevertheless, the study doesn’t prove that BLV causes breast cancer. Those cells are also the first hosts to breast cancer when the disease emerges. However, with the advent of technology, DNA sequencing and other sensitive techniques to detect viruses were developed and Buehring employed these techniques to publish a study in 2003 that established possible infection of humans by BIV.

Until recently, science had been unsure if BLV could be found in the human population.

Though the results of the study indicate a positive step toward uncovering the mysteries of breast cancer, the authors assert that much more work is needed to demonstrate whether or not BLV precedes the cancer development, in order to correlate causation. They purposefully looked for BLV with study methods that have not been previously available, and were able to gain better insight into the possible link.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, regardless of race or ethnicity, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A 2007 U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of bulk milk tanks found that 100 percent of dairy operations with large herds of 500 or more cows tested positive for BLV antibodies.

It is known that there are several viruses that ultimately may derive into cancer.

Researchers at UC Berkeley analysed samples of breast tissue from 239 women, with and without breast cancer.