Tumors were thought to be contagious until the eighteenth century. For example, if women got breast cancer, some doctors recommended building hospitals to treat cancer patients outside the city so as not to infect others. Today we know that breast cancer also depends on a hereditary predisposition and that for tumors one does not get sick by contagion.
But there are some special cases involving infections.
There are not many infectious diseases that can give rise to cancer even twenty or thirty years after infection. What happens? Some infectious agents that act inside the cell transforming it into cancer.
These tumors can show up even after twenty or thirty years after having the infection. It is not certain that this can happen to everyone, but infection could still be a possible risk.
Here are the infectious diseases that can give rise to cancer even after twenty or thirty years of infection
Most infectious tumors are caused by four microbes: Helicobacter pylori, human papilloma virus, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus.
The first predisposes to stomach cancer. Instead, the hepatitis B and C viruses could be responsible for a possible stomach cancer. The papilloma virus could cause various cancers: cervix, vulva, penis, anus, oropharyngeal tumors.
These infections create a state of chronic inflammation, which can affect the stability of genes in the tissue cells. In addition, where there is inflammation, a very favorable environment is created for the cancer cell, which is able to multiply and resist attacks from the immune system.
In this way, the tumor grows and can give rise to metastases.
What to do
These infections like hepatitis B and papilloma virus can be prevented with vaccines. On the other hand, in cases of hepatitis C and Hicobacter pylori they can be “treated” with drugs.
However, there is good news, in fact, thanks to antibiotics, antiviral drugs and vaccines, in the coming decades, it will most likely be possible to achieve the definitive defeat of these tumors.