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1 in 8 cancer cases worldwide are caused by infections, study finds

221 points • by colinprince • today at 12:33 PM • 125 comments • view on HN

Comments

toasty228 • today at 1:10 PM

https://www.oatext.com/which-environment-makes-cancer.php

Always a good read, most cancers are environmental, and most of these are caused by obesity, bad diet and smoking/drinking, fix these four things in your life and you reduce your chances of getting cancer by 50%+

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johnnyApplePRNG • today at 9:37 PM

>For many people, sun exposure, smoking and family history are the first thoughts that come to mind regarding cancer risk factors. While infections are rarely high on the list, new research shows one in eight cancers worldwide are actually caused by them.

To be fair... Smoking increases your chance of infection significantly.

lofatdairy • today at 5:22 PM

It's interesting that up until the 1970s, viral infections were the predominant theory for the cause of cancer (this is before my time so apologies if I'm exaggerating). This was due to discoveries like src, ras, EBV, etc, so a lot of these carcinogenic pathogens were well known and studied. It wasn't until several discoveries in the 70s and 80s that we started focusing more scientifically on genetic drivers. But it's not like these infectious drivers went away, even if they are no longer as strongly associated with the disease in the public conscious.

hobo123 • today at 3:54 PM

Is it 100% clear cut that the infection causes the cancer, or can there be a common problem (like immune system degradation) that causes both the infection to develop (or develop easier) and the cancer the grow (which always involves failure of the immune system to kill it, if I'm not mistaken)?

Many viri are present in many human beings, but they don't develop cancer after all.

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jobs_throwaway • today at 4:10 PM

If you haven't gotten your HPV vaccine yet—go get it. One of the easiest interventions you can take to reduce your cancer risk.

ck2 • today at 2:30 PM

well they are finding forever-chemical and micro-plastics in all freshwater in the USA now and even in ALL mother's milk

so safe bet that cancer rates are never going to be lower than they are today

remember US also just deregulated all pollution from power plants, funded re-starting coal plants and dropped car engine efficiency requirements

oh they are also trying to double oil-fracking output which toxifies groundwater and air for miles around it with offgassing

every rocket launch and deorbit by starlink et all also put toxic pollution into the atmosphere

so next decade should end well for cancer rates

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verity_check • today at 6:23 PM

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realityrunner • today at 5:10 PM

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crayforbrains • today at 1:31 PM

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samso26 • today at 2:05 PM

The striking part is that many infection-linked cancers already have prevention or treatment options,but access and uptake are uneven. That makes this partly a delivery problem: vaccines, screening,and treatment only reduce cancer burden when people can actually get them. i’d be interested to see the estimates broken down by how much could be prevented with tools we already have versus infections where theres still no effective intervention.

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Frieren • today at 2:28 PM

> HPV vaccine hesitancy in Europe: side effects, uncertainty, and mistrust > When individuals mistrust those communicating about vaccines, perceiving, for instance, that they are not being fully transparent about the potential side effects of the vaccine, it can affect their confidence in the HPV vaccine even if they have received information confirming that the vaccine is safe and effective > This was seen with the rapid spread of You-Tube videos of young girls believing to have been affected by HPV vaccination in Denmark, Japan, Colombia, Ireland and the UK.

Governments around the world are losing citizens trust. And that has terrible consequences. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. And the rise of far-right contrarian governments that use fear to destroy trust in institutions and gain votes are the main cause. Billionaires financing far-right governments end costing the lives of their citizens that will have poorer physical health.

We may know how to reduce the risk of cancer. We may have vaccines for that infections. But if governments care more about power than serving citizens all that knowledge is for nothing.

- https://www.hpvworld.com/articles/hpv-vaccine-hesitancy-in-e...

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