French researchers pooled data on 27 cancers from 184 countries to calculate the fraction of cases attributable to viral, bacterial and parasitic infections. Dr Catherine de Martel and Dr Martyn Plummer, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, wrote in the Lancet Oncology journal: "Infections with certain viruses, bacteria, and parasites are one of the biggest and preventable causes of cancer worldwide … Application of existing public-health methods for infection prevention, such as vaccination, safer injection practice, or antimicrobial treatments, could have a substantial effect on future burden of cancer worldwide." Human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B and C, and the ulcer inducing Helicobacter pylori caused 1.9 million cancers worldwide in 2008, according to the study. Commenting on the findings, Dr Goodarz Danaei from the Harvard School of Public Medicine in Boston, wrote: "Their estimates show the potential for preventive and therapeutic programmes in less developed countries to significantly reduce the global burden of cancer and the vast disparities across regions and countries. "Since effective and relatively low-cost vaccines for HPV and [hepatitis B] are available, increasing vaccine coverage should be a priority for health systems in high-burden countries."
– A sixth of all cancers worldwide are the result of potentially treatable or preventable infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites, according to a new study. Researchers found that that almost 2 million new cancer cases in 2008 were caused by the human papilloma virus, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and the stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori, and that the proportion of cancers caused by infection was three times higher in developing countries, reports the Guardian. A fifth of the 7.5 million cancer deaths worldwide in 2008 were caused by infection-related cancers, the study found. The research shows that vaccines for HPV and hepatitis B should be a priority for health care systems, notes an editorial accompanying the Lancet study. The HPV vaccination program is gaining momentum, but only very slowly, because "it’s hard to get teenagers in for all three doses," and "because HPV is sexually transmitted, it’s evoked a whole bunch of hullaballoo over whether the vaccine promotes promiscuity," the chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center tells ABC. Greater progress has been made with the hepatitis B vaccination program, he says, so the occurrence of liver cancer should be "dropping precipitously" over the next 20 years.