Fw: breast cancer vaccine???

[Guest guest]

``Fifty percent of women who have breast cancer might also have brown hair,

that doesn't mean brown hair causes cancer,'' Boyages, director of the

New South Wales Breast Cancer Institute, told Reuters.

http://dailynews./h/nm/19990812/ts/cancer_virus_1.html

Thursday August 12 1:24 AM ET

Scientists Find Virus Linked With Breast Cancer

Full Coverage

Breast Cancer Research

SYDNEY (Reuters) - U.S. scientists have discovered evidence of a virus

linked to human breast cancer which they say could lead to the development

of a vaccine for the disease.

The virus, almost identical to one causing breast cancer in laboratory mice,

was found in more than 85 percent of women with breast cancer, Garry

of Tulane University told an international virology conference in Sydney

this week.

The human mammary tumor virus, which Garry said was hereditary and

non-infectious, was also discovered in 20 percent of people without breast

cancer.

``If the virus has the same role in human breast cancer as in mouse breast

cancer then this is a very significant step in fighting the disease,'' Garry

told Reuters Thursday.

``Finding a vaccine shouldn't be all that difficult,'' he said.

Breast cancer specialists were skeptical, saying the link between a virus

and disease was not necessarily causal.

``Fifty percent of women who have breast cancer might also have brown hair,

that doesn't mean brown hair causes cancer,'' Boyages, director of the

New South Wales Breast Cancer Institute, told Reuters.

``This association is interesting, but needs to be replicated in bigger

numbers,'' Boyages said.

The U.S. study was done on 30 breast cancer patients.

Garry said his findings could also help the early detection of breast

cancer, as the hereditary virus would show up in DNA taken from a simple

blood test.