Infectious Agents Associated Cancers: Epidemiology and Molecular Biology

Qing Zhu, Feng Gu, Caixia Zhu, Yuyan Wang, Fang Wei, Qiliang Cai

Emerging evidence has shown that the cell of microenvironmental abnormalities is a key factor that controls many cellular physiological processes including cellular communication, homing, proliferation, and survival. Given its central regulatory role, it is therefore not surprising that it is widely exploited by infectious agents for inducing pathogenesis. In the past decade, a number of oncogenic pathogens including viruses, bacteria, and parasites are demonstrated to take advantage of the tumor microenvironmental factors including hypoxia, oxidative stress, and cytokines, to create an extracellular environment more favorable for pathogen survival and propagation and escape from the host immune surveillance. Here we summarize and highlight the current understanding of the interplay between common tumor microenvironmental factors and oncogenic pathogens in promoting tumorigenesis.