Furuta, Rika A, Miyazawa, Takayuki, Sugiyama, Takeki et al. · Retrovirology · 2011 · DOI
Researchers tested blood samples from 500 healthy people, 67 prostate cancer patients, and 100 ME/CFS patients in Japan to see if a virus called XMRV was linked to these conditions. They found some antibodies to XMRV in a small number of people (1.6-3.0%), but no clear evidence of active infection in any group, suggesting XMRV is not a cause of ME/CFS in Japan.
During the 2000s-2010s, XMRV was proposed as a potential infectious cause of ME/CFS, generating significant hope and controversy. This negative finding in a carefully designed Japanese population study helped clarify that XMRV is not consistently associated with ME/CFS, contributing to the scientific consensus that earlier XMRV-CFS reports were likely false positives.
This study does not prove XMRV causes ME/CFS globally—the results apply specifically to Japan and may not generalize to other populations. The presence of some anti-XMRV antibodies in healthy people suggests potential cross-reactivity or past exposure to related viruses, so the meaning of these antibodies remains unclear. A negative finding does not rule out XMRV's role in other geographic regions or in subgroups not captured by this sample.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Furuta, Rika A, Miyazawa, Takayuki, Sugiyama, Takeki, Kuratsune, Hirohiko, Ikeda, Yasuhiro, Sato, Eiji, et al. (2011). No association of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus with prostate cancer or chronic fatigue syndrome in Japan.. Retrovirology. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-8-20
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-furuta-2011-association-xenotropic,
author = {Furuta, Rika A and Miyazawa, Takayuki and Sugiyama, Takeki and Kuratsune, Hirohiko and Ikeda, Yasuhiro and Sato, Eiji and Misawa, Naoko and Nakatomi, Yasuhito and Sakuma, Ryuta and Yasui, Kazuta and Yamaguti, Kouzi and Hirayama, Fumiya},
title = {No association of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus with prostate cancer or chronic fatigue syndrome in Japan.},
journal = {Retrovirology},
year = {2011},
doi = {10.1186/1742-4690-8-20},
note = {PubMed: 21414229},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/furuta-2011-association-xenotropic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/furuta-2011-association-xenotropic
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