Nearly 1 in 8 Cancers Worldwide Caused by Infections Frederik Joelving

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/nearly-1-8-cancers-worldwide-caused-infections-2026a10010mx?src= About 2.3 million cancer diagnoses in 2024, or 12% of all cases globally, were caused by infections, according to a new study from the Interna ti onal Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Those cancers were attributable to 12 infectious agents known to be carcinogenic to humans. At the top of list were Helicobacter pylori and human papillomavirus (HPV), which together caused roughly 1.5 million cancers worldwide in 2024. H. pylori is the primary cause of gastric cancers globally, while certain strains of HPV cause virtually all cervical cancers and contribute to several other cancer types. Meanwhile, an estimated 360,000 cancer cases were attributed to hepatitis B virus and 160,000 to hepatitis C. And in what researchers called a notable finding, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) accounted for roughly 260,000 cancer diagnoses in 2024.