Study Estimates 2.3 Million Cancer Cases in 2024 Tied to Infections
A study in The Lancet Oncology estimates 2.3 million new cancer cases worldwide in 2024 were attributable to infections, about 12 percent of all cases, with most occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
The study reported that H. pylori accounted for the largest number of infection-attributable cases, 760,000, or 4 percent of the total, followed by HPV with 750,000 cases, or 4 percent, HBV with 360,000 cases, or 2 percent, EBV with 260,000 cases, or 1 percent, and HCV with 160,000 cases. The figures were described in a report on the findings.
More than three quarters of the infection-attributable cancers occurred in low- and middle-income countries. Eastern Asia carried the largest burden, with 990,000 cases, or 42 percent of the global total. Rates were also higher than the global average in sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
David Greenberg, MD, of Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center, said in a news release that the data served as a reminder that a significant portion of the global cancer burden is preventable. "We have historically siloed infectious diseases and oncology, but they are deeply intertwined," Greenberg said. "By shifting our focus toward aggressive infection control, we can literally vaccinate and treat our way out of millions of future cancer diagnoses."
The study places infections alongside other established causes of cancer and provides country- and region-level estimates of how many cases are linked to pathogens for which vaccines, antibiotics or antiviral treatments exist. The concentration of cases in low- and middle-income countries and in Eastern Asia reflects the geographic distribution of the underlying infections rather than any difference in how cancers are counted, according to the report.