[biotechbio]

This is not true. Some cancers are caused by viruses. Many oncogenes were initially discovered in viruses. But the majority of tumors are definitely not caused by viruses.

This was a hypothesis in the field for a number of years, and has been disproven. If you want a good overview of the history of cancer, I recommend “The Emperor of All Maladies” by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

[rubicon33]

Thanks, I'll check that out. Bought it on Kindle and will give it a read.

[panabee]

where we agree:

* not all cancers are caused by viruses.

* only some cancers are caused by viruses.

where we disagree:

* that science has proven the majority of tumors are definitely not caused by viruses.

could you kindly share a few of the studies disproving the majority case? in particular, i'm interested in the sample size and diversity powering these refutations.

to clarify, i'm not saying you're wrong. simply seeking to learn more.

my research has uncovered misleading conclusions based on studies with flawed methodology/logic. for example, this study [0] states, "epstein-barr virus plays no role in the tumorigenesis of small-cell carcinoma of the lung." based on a sample size of 23.

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14752524

[chrisamiller]

You're going to want to start with the PCAWG consortium, who looked very closely at viral involvement across a host of cancers. Their numbers:

Cohort: 2,658 cancers across 38 tumor types Findings: Overall, 23 virus genera were detected across 356 patients with cancer (13%)

You can read all of the details here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8076016/

I'm not saying that there aren't other mechanisms (sustained inflammation, etc) that might contribute to the aetiology of some other cancers, even without clear viral integrations, but we can state pretty strongly that many cancers are not directly caused by cancer.

[biotechbio]

Sure, a 2020 study from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, looking for viral evidence in thousands of tumor genomes and transcriptomes[0]. Part of a massive, cross-institutional effort.

"Searching large pan-cancer genome and whole-transcriptome datasets enabled the identification of a high percentage of virus-associated cases (16%)".

Far from majority.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-019-0558-9

[epgui]

This is not really controversial. The majority of cancers in humans are not caused by viruses.

[coldcode]

Second that, its a great book.