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Since the start of the 20th century, it’s been known that certain infections play a role in cancer in animals. More recently, infections with certain viruses, bacteria, and parasites have been recognized as risk factors for several types of cancer in humans.
Worldwide, infections are linked to about 15% to 20% of cancers. This percentage is even higher in developing countries, but it is lower in the United States and other developed countries. This is partly because certain infections are more common in developing countries, and partly because some other risk factors for cancer, such as obesity, are more common in developed countries.
Infections can raise a person’s risk of cancer in different ways. For example:
Any of these changes might lead to a higher risk of cancer.
Even though the infections described here can raise a person’s risk of certain types of cancer, most people with these infections never develop cancer. The risk of developing cancer is also influenced by other factors. For example, infection with Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) bacteria might increase your risk of stomach cancer, but what you eat, whether or not you smoke, and other factors also affect your risk.
Many of the infections that influence cancer risk can be passed from person to person, but cancer itself cannot. A healthy person can’t “catch” cancer from someone who has it.
The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as editors and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
Heymann DL (Ed.) Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, 19th ed. Washington DC: American Public Health Association; 2008:393–402.
International Agency for Research on Cancer. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Volume 100B: A Review of Human Carcinogens: Biological Agents. 2012. Accessed at http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/vol100B/index.php on September 19, 2014.
Trinchieri G. Inflammation. In DeVita VT, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA (eds). Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology, 9th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2011: 193–202.
Last Revised: July 11, 2016
American Cancer Society medical information is copyrighted material. For reprint requests, please see our Content Usage Policy.
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