Microbes and cancer: Coming a full circle

Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
Pathology Laboratory, Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.2448v1
Subject Areas
Infectious Diseases, Oncology
Keywords
Microbes, Cancer, Viruses
Copyright
© 2016 Srihari et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Srihari S, Srihari S. 2016. Microbes and cancer: Coming a full circle. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2448v1

Abstract

Microbes, particularly viruses, have had a chequered history in cancer research. Considered in the 1960s and 1970s as the main cause of cancers, a decade later microbes were set aside as inconsequential to the field. However, with confirmed links established between microbial infections and certain cancers in the last several years – e.g. human papillomavirus infection and cervical cancer, and Helicobacter pylori infection and gastric cancer – the field has slowly started to take notice of microbes again. Today, we know that about 15% of all cancer cases reported worldwide is due to microbes. Moreover, latest research findings suggest that viruses can be engineered to selectively target and kill cancer cells. A healthy microbiome in the human gut is also thought to aid responses to certain cancer therapies. Therefore, microbes appear to be back in the game now. Here we present a short perspective of the ‘full circle’ that microbes have come and their relevance to cancer research.

Author Comment

We present a short perspective on the relevance of microbes to the field of cancer research.