طیبه طالب زاده

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the world. Immunotherapy is a new, non-invasive and effective method for the treatment of cancer, but its side effects on the normal flora of bacteria and opportunistic infections not known yet. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of immunotherapy on Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) virulence gene expression in patients with prostate cancer. In this study, the effect of prostate cancer immunotherapy on the expression level of enterococcal surface protein (esp) gene which is involved in Enterococcus faecalis pathogenesis were investigated. For this purpose, the samples were analysed in three groups; normal individuals 211 men), prostate cancer patients (176 men) before and six months after immunotherapy period. Results showed significant (p=0.00) over expression of esp gene in prostate cancer patients after immunotherapy. There was no significant difference between prostate cancer patients before immunotherapy and healthy subjects. We conclude from these findings that immunotherapy could play a major role in increasing the pathogenicity risk of E. faecalis as a normal microflora. According to current results we suggest that using antibiotic administration in the period of immunotherapy prevents the possibility of opportunistic bacterial infections including E. faecalis.