Association of Mycoplasmal Infections with Malignant Progression, Relapse and Stage in Breast Cancer
By Linda on Nov 16, 2009 in General News, Infections | comments(0)
Association of Mycoplasmal Infections with Malignant Progression, Relapse and Stage in Breast Cancer Patients
Intracellular bacterial infections have historically been proposed as a cause of cancer [1,2]. Although bacterial involvement in malignant transformation and its reversal with antibiotic treatment have been demonstrated in animal models [3], there are few examples of direct involvement of bacteria in clinical transformation of malignant cells [4]. It seems more likely that the release of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and other genotoxic molecules by intracellular bacteria play a role in progression to malignancy rather than the inception of cancer or transformation [5]. Reports in the literature indicate that over one-half of ovarian cancer patients have mycoplasmal infections in their tumors [6], and the incidence of infection in ovarian cancer was related to stage and survival [7]. Some results have been questioned on the basis of contamination in tissue culture [8], but most studies did not use culture procedures. Therefore, we examined breast cancer patients to determine if there was a relationship between systemic mycoplasmal infections and progression of their breast cancers. Examination of breast cancer patients showed mycoplasmal infections inside blood leukocytes (~50%+) not blood plasma or serum. The most common species found were M. fermentans, M. pneumoniae and M. genitalium. In contrast, in healthy adults the incidence of these species was low [9]. We found an association between stage, progression (measured by relapse after surgery) and presence of mycoplasmal infection(s) (P<0.001) in breast cancer. The results suggest that intracellular mycoplasmal infections known to be associated with malignant progression are significantly related to progression and relapse due to metastasis of breast cancer.
Prof. Garth L. Nicolson
American Academy of Environmental Medicine 2005 Annual Meeting
The Institute for Molecular Medicine, Email: gnicolson@immed.org
References
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