Lymphoma is a cancer, not a contagion, yet some infections can start one. The episode covers EBV, HTLV-1 and a stomach bacterium behind a lymphoma that antibiotics can cure, and the vaccines for hepatitis B and HPV that prevent cancer before it begins.
Who's who
- Denis BurkittSurgeon who mapped a childhood tumor across Africa's malaria belt
Where it happens
- Taiwan+1 more episodeLaunched universal infant hepatitis B vaccination in 1984
- Equatorial AfricaRegion where Burkitt mapped the childhood tumor
Timeline
- Late 1950sBurkitt maps a childhood tumor tracking the malaria belt
- 1964Epstein, Achong and Barr identify a herpesvirus in Burkitt lymphoma cells, the first human cancer virus
- 1980HTLV-1, the first human retrovirus, identified
- 1984Taiwan begins universal infant hepatitis B vaccination
- 2006HPV vaccines licensed and rolled out
- 2012IARC classifies EBV, HBV, HCV, HPV, HTLV-1, KSHV and H. pylori as Group 1 carcinogens
Still debated
Old studies suggesting Hodgkin lymphoma clustered in space and time were inconsistent and never showed that cancer spreads between people. The share of Hodgkin lymphoma linked to EBV varies by geography and age, and the full lifetime payoff of HPV and hepatitis B vaccines will take decades to measure.