The pathogen’s playbook in cancer: from oncogenesis to progression
Hongzhou Cai, Shaozhe Yang, Ruizi Wang, Ruixin Li, Yihan Liu, Ruzhou Chen, Yun Hu, Ziwei Li, Jinzhou Zheng, Xuan Sun, Guoren Zhou
TL;DR
This paper reviews how microbes like bacteria, viruses, and fungi contribute to cancer development and progression through various mechanisms.
Contribution
The paper categorizes microbes based on their distinct mechanisms in oncogenesis and tumor progression.
Findings
Certain microbes directly induce tumorigenesis through DNA damage and oncoprotein expression.
Other microbes modulate tumor progression by altering the tumor microenvironment and suppressing immunity.
The review highlights clinical translation potential and challenges in precision oncology.
Abstract
Globally, around 15–20% of cancers are linked to microbial infections, involving viruses, bacteria, and fungi, each with distinct pathogenic features. Advanced multi-omics technologies have confirmed tumor-specific microbial communities within tumor tissues. This review categorizes microbes by their action mechanisms in cancer biology: one group (e.g., Helicobacter pylori, HPV, Aspergillus species) directly induces tumorigenesis via DNA damage, repairing pathway disruption, oncoprotein expression, and carcinogenic metabolite production; the other group (e.g., Fusobacterium nucleatum, HIV, Candida albicans) modulates tumor progression by regulating the tumor microenvironment, enhancing tumor cell chemoresistance, or suppressing anti-tumor immunity. Additionally, this review also explores clinical translation potential, highlights research challenges, and proposes future directions to…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Click any figure to enlarge with its caption.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsCancer Research and Treatments · Cancer Mechanisms and Therapy · Cancer, Stress, Anesthesia, and Immune Response