James J, ed. ($110.00.) Humana Press, 2000. ISBN 0 896 03772 X.

The most important advance in oncology ever is the understanding that cancers (mostly) have specific causes, and that these causes may be identified, leading (potentially) to control. The causes of some cancers are infectious agents. The proposal that cancers are caused by infectious agents has had a very up and down history: today we can be certain that many cancers, including several of the very common ones, have aetiologies with infectious agents as necessary (but usually not sufficient) factors. Where a cancer has an infectious “cause” we can in principle design control strategies based on ones for infectious disease—we know how to cope with infectious diseases (mostly).

Looking world wide we can now point at the main infectious agents involved in cancer. These are human papillomavirus (HPV), which is recognised by the World Health Organisation as a cause (and probably the primary cause) of cervical carcinoma; hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV), which certainly contribute to hepatocellular carcinoma; and Helicobacter pylori, which most certainly contributes to gastric carcinoma. These four …