"Of Mice and Men - Viruses and Prostate Cancer: What Is the Next Step?"

Next year we will celebrate the discovery of the first bona fide tumour virus, although the actual discovery occurred exactly 100 yr ago. In 1910, a farmer from Long Island brought his sick Plymouth Rock chicken to Peyton Rous. From the chicken breast tumour (a soft tissue tumour, or sarcoma), Rous obtained an extract that, once he had filtered it to get rid of entire cells or bacteria, could still induce similar types of sarcomas in other fowl. After some hesitation, he published his findings in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in 1911, but his colleagues greeted his work with great scepticism [1]. Despite such an early start, it took 55 yr before Rous’ work would be fully recognized with the Nobel Prize. In 1966, the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences divided the prize equally between Rous and Charles Brenton Huggins. The latter is considered the father of prostate oncology because of his pioneering recognition of hormonal involvement in prostate cancer (PCa), although some of these principles are questioned today. ( Editors put the first 150 words as Abstract)