Professor Osman Sianipar, a member of the UGM Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing (FK-KMK UGM) and a researcher on viruses in cancer, was inaugurated as a professor of clinical pathology and laboratory medicine on Thursday (Aug. 22).
This event was held in the Senate Hall of the UGM Central Office. During the inauguration ceremony, Professor Osman Sianipar delivered a speech titled “The Impact of Viral Infections in Cancer Pathogenesis.”
In his speech, Professor Sianipar explained that cancer has been reported to be associated not only with human oncogenic viral infections but also with bacterial and parasitic infections.
Oncogenic viruses, known as tumor viruses, can cause chronic infections in humans, leading to changes in the infected individuals and resulting in cancer.
However, besides influencing the onset of cancer, infections can also affect the treatment and recovery of cancer.
The presence of viruses can be used to evaluate cancer risk and prevention, such as increasing the use of HPV DNA testing for cervical cancer screening.
Understanding viral etiology can provide a basis for cancer prevention strategies.
Epidemiological research has provided scientific evidence showing a link between viral infections and the development of cancer.
“The next question is, which type of viral infection contributes to cancer? Acute or chronic infections?” Professor Sianipar stated during his inaugural speech.
Professor Sianipar argued that cancer development begins with the accumulation of disturbances in several normal cell activities, eventually transforming into cancer cells.
Common characteristics of cancer include autonomous growth, insensitivity to anti-growth signals, limitless replication, and tissue invasion.
In solid tumors, invasive cancer cells can induce blood vessel growth through angiogenesis.
“One virus can be associated with more than one type of tumor,” Professor Sianipar said.
During the event, Professor Sianipar also discussed examples of cancers caused by viral infections, such as liver cancer from HBV and HCV, cervical cancer from HPV, and nasopharyngeal cancer caused by EBV.
He explained that some oncogenic viruses only affect specific organs or cells, such as HBV and HCV, which affect the liver, and HTLV-1, which affects CD4+ T lymphocytes.
“Other oncogenic viruses can affect multiple organs, such as HPV and EBV. Chronic oncogenic viral infections can increase the risk of cancer by 15.4%, which is a relatively significant figure,” he concluded his speech.
He hopes that understanding the pathogenesis of cancer due to oncogenic viral infections will contribute to the development of prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment strategies for cancer.
UGM Rector Professor Ova Emilia stated that Professor Osman Sianipar is one of 452 active professors at UGM and 63 active professors out of 131 FK-KMK UGM has ever had.
Author: Triya Andriyani
Photographer: Firsto
Post-editor: Afif