A recent French study has found that around one in six worldwide cancers are caused by infections. Four particular infections – human papillomaviruses (HPV), Helicobater pylori and hepatitis B and C – were behind 1.9 million cancers, most of which were cancers of the cervix, stomach and liver.
The estimates, published in The Lancet Oncology, show that 80% of these cases occur in less developed parts of the world. The researchers carried out a systemic analysis to estimate the proportion of cancers across the world that could be attributed to infection. For eight regions, they also calculated the proportion of new cancer cases that could have been prevented. The group found that, overall, 16 in every hundred cancers worldwide in 2008 were infection-related, but this figure was three times higher in developing countries. The figures also varied widely from region to region, from 3.3% in Australia and New Zealand, to 32.7% in sub- Saharan Africa. Cervical cancer accounted for half the infection-related cancer figures in women, with liver and stomach cancers accounting for 80% of male cases.
