Cancer and Infectious Causes

Infectious causes of cancer and their detection

Molecular techniques for identifying pathogens associated with cancer continue to be developed, including one reported recently in BMC Medical Genomics. Identifying a causal infectious agent helps in understanding the biology of these cancers and can lead ultimately to the development of antimicrobial drugs and vaccines for their treatment and prevention.

Infectious causes of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer.

Powerful diagnostic technology, plus the realization that organisms of otherwise unimpressive virulence can produce slowly progressive chronic disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and disease outcomes, has resulted in the discovery of new infectious agents and new concepts of infectious diseases. The demonstration that final outcome of infection is as much determined by the g...

Infectious Causes of Malignancy.

It has long been believed that cancer arises from genetic changes and that the agents of these changes have roots in toxins or in the environment. In this review, however, we discuss some of the infectious causes of cancer, both suspected and proven. Problems that arise when attempting to associate infection with malignancy include the long incubation periods of many diseases and the many cofac...

Infectious Causes of Vasculitis

Exploring the non-viral infectious causes of cancer.

This article discusses the contribution made by non-viral infections to the global burden of cancer and describes the bacterial, protozoan and fungal organisms that are believed to cause cancer, either directly or indirectly.