Study: One-Sixth of Cancers Are Preventable

Cancer is caused by infection in one out of six patients worldwide, according to a medical review published in The Lancet Oncology. That means as many as 2 million people a year get cancer for lack of preventive vaccines and antibiotics.

The BBC explains:

Vaccines are available to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV)—which is linked to cancer of the cervix—and hepatitis B virus—an established cause of liver cancer.

And experts know that stomach cancer can be avoided by clearing the bacterial infection H. pylori from the gut using a course of antibiotics.

As you might imagine, these types of preventable, infection-related cancers were found in greater proportion in developing countries.

An electron micrograph image of the human papillomavirus, courtesy of the National Institutes of Health.