{"id":159936,"date":"2025-12-04T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T06:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidneyresearchuk.org\/?p=159936"},"modified":"2025-12-04T13:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T13:14:01","slug":"new-results-suggest-that-bladder-cancer-could-be-caused-by-the-bodys-response-to-common-childhood-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidneyresearchuk.org\/2025\/12\/04\/new-results-suggest-that-bladder-cancer-could-be-caused-by-the-bodys-response-to-common-childhood-virus\/","title":{"rendered":"New results suggest that bladder cancer could be caused by the body\u2019s response to common childhood virus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t\t\n\t

Data published today in Science Advances<\/a>, from Dr Simon Baker’s group at the University of York, suggests that BK virus can trigger changes in DNA that drive bladder cancer development, which kidney transplant recipients are at much greater risk of. The study was funded by Kidney Research UK and York Against Cancer<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"Simon

The impact of BK virus on kidney transplant recipients<\/h2>\n

BK virus<\/a> is a common virus that nearly everyone picks up in childhood generally without noticing. Once you have been infected with BK virus, it can hide in the kidneys without causing obvious symptoms. Reactivation of BK virus can happen in kidney transplant recipients due to their immunosuppressive medication. These drugs prevent the immune system from attacking the new kidney, but they also make it harder to fight off infections such as BK virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reactivated BK virus infection can affect the kidneys, ureter (the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder) and bladder, potentially resulting in kidney damage. When kidney damage occurs, it is known as BK virus-associated nephropathy (BKVAN or BKN), which affects around 5% of transplant recipients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently there are no specific treatments for BK virus or its complications. Reducing immunosuppressive medication helps the immune system to fight BK virus, but it carries the risk that the immune system might damage the transplanted kidney.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\t

Kidney transplant recipients face a significantly higher risk of developing bladder and ureter cancers<\/h2>\n

We know that kidney transplant<\/a> recipients develop ureter and bladder cancers much more frequently than the general population, linked to BK virus<\/a> infection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Kidney transplant recipients are at over three times greater risk of bladder cancer. We have suspected that BK virus is involved in bladder cancer in transplant recipients, but little was known about the processes within the body that led to these cancers. Our results not only tell us more about how urinary tract tumours might develop in transplant recipients, but also suggest that BK virus may be involved in cancer development in the rest of the population.” Dr Simon Baker.<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n\t

What is bladder cancer?\u00a0<\/h2>\n

The urinary bladder is an organ that stores urine at low pressure to protect the kidneys. Bladder cancer<\/a> refers to an abnormal growth of cells (tumour) that develops in the bladder lining (known as the “urothelium”). Each year in the UK there are over 23,000 new cases of bladder cancer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t

Dr Simon Baker explains the research in this video<\/h3>\n\t