Infections cause many cancer cases

BACTERIA, viruses and parasites cause around two million cases of cancer in the world each year, experts believe.

Of the 7.5 million global deaths from cancer that occurred in 2008, an estimated 1.5 million may have been due to potentially preventable or treatable infections.

American scientists carried out a statistical analysis and found that around 16 per cent of all cancers diagnosed in 2008 were infection-related. The proportion of cancers linked to infection was three times higher in developing than in developed countries.

The study’s leaders wrote: “Application of existing public-health methods for infection prevention, such as vaccination… could have a substantial effect on future burden of cancer worldwide.”