5 Infections An Oncologist Says Raise Your Cancer Risk (And How To Lower It)

You probably know that lifestyle factors like smoking can increase our cancer risk, as can things that are out of our control, like our genes. 

But a recent paper from the World Health Organisation found that 12% of the world’s total cancer cases in 2024 came from a less-discussed source: infections. 

Viruses can turn off or disrupt a cell’s ability to destroy or divide itself, and may even carry cancer-causing genes.

Overall, the new research, published in The Lancet Oncology, linked 2.3 million new cancer cases to infections in 2024 alone. Five diseases contributed to the majority of these.

Here, we spoke to Dr Jiri Kubes, a radiation oncologist at Proton Therapy ...