Abstract
To date, almost one and a half million cases of cancer are diagnosed every year in the US and nearly 560,000 Americans are expected to die of cancer in the current year, more than 1,500 people a day (data from the American Cancer Society at http://www.cancer.org/). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), roughly 20% of all cancers worldwide results from chronic infections; in particular, up to 15% of human cancers is characterized by a viral aetiology with higher incidence in Developing Countries. The link between viruses and cancer was one of the pivotal discoveries in cancer research during the past Century. Indeed, the infectious nature of specific tumors has important implications in terms of their prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. In the 21st Century, the research on viral oncology field continues to be vigorous, with new significant and original studies on viral oncogenesis and translational research from basic virology to treatment of cancer. This review will cover different viral oncology aspects, starting from the history of viral oncology and moving to the peculiar features of oncogenic RNA and DNA viruses, with a special focus on human pathogens.
Highlights
To date, almost one and a half million cases of cancer are diagnosed every year in the US and nearly 560,000 Americans are expected to die of cancer in the current year, more than 1,500 people a day
A brief history of viral oncology The first evidence of tumor viral aetiology dates back to 1907 when Ciuffo and co-workers showed that human warts could be transmitted by cell-free filtrates derived from lesions [1]
In 1951, studies by Gross and coworkers led to the identification of the first mouse leukemia virus [5], later confirmed by Moloney and others [6,7,8], and in 1953 of a mouse virus that induced a variety of solid tumors
Summary
Zur Hausen H: Condylomata acuminata and human genital cancer. Zur Hausen H, Meinhof W, Scheiber W, Bornkamm GW: Attempts to detect virus-specific DNA in human tumors. Durst M, Gissmann L, Ikenberg H, zur Hausen H: A papillomavirus DNA from a cervical carcinoma and its prevalence in cancer biopsy samples from different geographic regions. Colombo M, Kuo G, Choo QL, Donato MF, Del Ninno E, Tommasini MA, Dioguardi N, Houghton M: Prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus in Italian patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
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