Infectious causes of cancer

Estimates place the worldwide risk of cancers from infectious causes at 16.1%. Viral infections are risk factors for cervical cancer, 80% of liver cancers, and 15–20% of the other cancers. This proportion varies in different regions of the world from a high of 32.7% in Sub-Saharan Africa to 3.3% in Australia and New Zealand. A virus that can cause cancer is called an oncovirus or tumor virus. These include the human papillomavirus, which is associated with cervical carcinoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Epstein-Barr virus, which is associated with a variety of Epstein-Barr virus-associated lymphoproliferative lymphomas; Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus, which is associated with Kaposi's sarcoma and primary effusion lymphoma; hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses which are associated with hepatocellular carcinoma; human T-cell leukemia virus-1, which is associated with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma; and bovine leukemia virus, which is associated with breast cancer. Bacterial infection may also increase the risk of cancer, as seen in Helicobacter pylori-induced stomach cancer. Parasitic infections strongly associated with cancer include Schistosoma haematobium (squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder) and the liver flukes, Opisthorchis viverrini and Clonorchis sinensis (cholangiocarcinoma). Infection is the fourth most important risk factor for cancer mortality in the developed world, causing about 10% of cancer mortality (see cancer prevention), coming after tobacco (~30% of cancers), diet (~30%) and obesity (~15%). Cancer causes 22.5% of deaths in the United States, so that about 2% of mortality in the United States appears to be due to cancers caused by infections. This is comparable to mortality caused by influenza and pneumonia, which cause 2.1% of deaths in the United States. Worldwide in 2015, the most common causes of cancer death were lung cancer (1.6 million deaths), liver cancer (745,000 deaths), and stomach cancer (723,000 deaths). Lung cancer is largely due to non-infectious causes, such as tobacco smoke.