ABSTRACT
Following tobacco use, microbial infections are the most preventable cause of cancer in humans. An understanding of how pathogens cause cancer provides insights into carcinogenesis, in general, and ways of countering infections, in particular. As early as the nineteenth century, it was noted that cervical cancer patterns corresponded to those of sexually transmitted diseases. Infections of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can progressively develop into full-blown acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a disease in which the immune system is attacked and suppressed. Both hepatitis B and C viruses cause liver cancer, the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Hepatitis C usually spreads when blood from a person infected with the virus gains entry into the body of an uninfected person. It appears human papillomavirus causes throat cancers much in the same way it causes cancers of the cervix.
