The Spectrum of Infectious Disease-Related Cancers

Despite the epidemiologic transition shifting the burden from infectious diseases to chronic noncommunicable diseases, infections still remain a huge cause of morbidity and mortality in much of the tropical world. When considering all infectious causes of cancer together, they amount to the second most frequent cause of cancer, after tobacco. In sub-Saharan Africa, infections cause one third of all cancers. Viruses remain the cause of nearly three quarters of infection-related cancers. Three viruses, human papillomaviruses and hepatitis B and C viruses, represent 85 % of virus-related cancers. The bacterium H. pylori, however, causes a quarter of the burden of all infection-related cancers. Given the numerical importance of these cancers and their preventability, efforts must be sustained to roll back the burden of infection-related cancers. In developing countries, up to a quarter of all cancers could be avoided by controlling these infections.