Inverse trend between estimated worldwide frequency of major cancers and inferred infectious burdens of populations: possible role of adaptive immune system

Abstract

Regions of the world subjected to heavy infectious burdens seem to show lower incidence of cancer. The index of infectious burden in this study has been chosen to be poverty, i.e., low GDP, high infantile mortality, poor hygienic conditions, inaccessibility to modern medical infra-structures, etc. When estimates of observed cancer incidence is plotted against the GDP of 24 regions of the world, a trend line is obtained: low GDP (a proxy for high infectious burden) tends to be associated with low incidence of cancer whereas high GDP values herald higher cancer occurrences. Similarly, countries with high infantile mortality rates tend to have a lower incidence of cancer and vice versa. The data are explained in terms of the so-called “hygiene hypothesis”: frequent infectious onslaughts, especially in childhood, challenge the immune system and build a strong adaptive immune system and immunological memory which prepare the body to tackle further battles down the line, such as cancer. Within this framework, the role of other factors such as diet, selenium, hardness of water, etc. in the aetiology of cancer is also briefly examined. For rigorous verification of this observation, age-adjusted cancer incidence rates for various countries must be used even though such data are not available for all the countries examined here [Bulletin of World Health Organization 62(2) (1984) 163]; where data are available [Age-adjusted death rates for cancer for selected sites (A classification) in 51 countries in 1974, Segi Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Nagoya, Japan (Feb. 1979); Global Geocancerology, Churchill Livingstone, New York, 1986], the same trend is also observed for the age-adjusted cancer death rates, which may be used as an index of age-adjusted cancer incidence, subject to qualifications discussed in the text.