Microbes And Malignancy

This book offers a summary and discussion of the advances of inflammation and infection in various cancers. The authors cover the classically known virus infections in cancer, novel roles of other pathogens (e.g. bacteria and fungi), as well as biomarkers for diagnosis and therapy. Further, the chapters highlight the progress of immune therapy, stem cells and the role of the microbiome in the pathophysiology of cancers. Readers will gain insights into complex microbial communities, that inhabit most external human surfaces and play a key role in health and disease. Perturbations of host-microbe interactions often lead to altered host responses that can promote cancer development. Thus, this book highlights emerging roles of the microbiome in pathogenesis of cancers and outcome of therapy. The focus is on mechanistic concepts that underlie the complex relationships between host and microbes. Approaches that can inhibit infection, suppress chronic inflammation and reverse the dysbiosis are discussed, as a means for restoring the balance between host and microbes. This comprehensive work will be beneficial to researchers and students interested in infectious diseases, microbiome, and cancer as well as clinicians and general physiologists.

Historically, the study of infection has focused on acute illnesses and their treatment. Infection, however, is not simply an acute process; microbial agents thrive in the human body throughout life. The unrecognized, intimate relationship we share with microorganisms is a critical factor in longevity and health. In recent years, it has become apparent that some cancers may be attributable to underlying chronic infection. Fortunately, infectious diseases are often treatable or preventable. Also, the composition of infectious agents is far less complex than that of humans. Thus the link between infection and cancer may offer insight into the pathogenesis and prevention of all cancers. This book, authored by some of the world's leaders in microbiology, virology, biochemistry, and pathology, provides an overview of oncogenic mechanisms imputed to infection. Individual chapters examine the epidemiologic, clinical and molecular links between specific infectious agents and cancer, and address methods of disease prevention. Microbiologists, cancer biologists, pathologists, oncologists, and infectious disease specialists interested in the etiology of malignancy will find this book an indispensable addition to their libraries.

This book deals with the emerging concept that certain pathogenic bacteria and viruses, when infecting people with cancer, actively fight tumors, allowing their regression. Although such observations go back more than 100 years, use of specific bacterial strains, or viruses, usually genetically modified with known anticancer drugs, and their protein/peptide products, has gained ground in recent years, allowing significant cancer regression in clinical trials with stage III/IV cancer patients or even in pediatric brain tumor patients, often without any demonstration of toxicity. It is composed of 12 chapters written by pioneers in microbial, biotech, and cancer research and covers the emerging roles of various microorganisms and their products in cancer therapy. The book highlights the benefits of using conventional cancer treatments (such as chemo- and radiotherapies) with microbial-based therapies. Such combinatorial therapies have gained particular attention as a strategy to overcome drug resistance, and the readers of the book will discover their impact on fundamental research and promising results from clinical trials.

This book ventures into a new and exciting area of discovery that directly ties our current knowledge of cancer to the discovery of microorganisms associated with different types of cancers. Recent studies demonstrate that microorganisms are directly linked to the establishment of cancers and that they can also contribute to the initiation, as well as persistence of, the cancers. Microbiome and Cancer covers the current knowledge of microbiome and its association with human cancers. It provides important reading for novices, senior undergraduates in cancer and microbiology, graduate students, junior investigators, residents, fellows and established investigators in the fields of cancer and microbiology. We cover areas related to known, broad concepts in microbiology and how they can relate to the ongoing discoveries of the micro-environment and the changes in the metabolic and physiologic states in that micro-environment, which are important for the ongoing nurturing and survival of the poly-microbial content that dictates activities in that micro-environment. We cover the interactions of microorganisms associated with gastric carcinomas, which are important for driving this particular cancer. Additional areas include oral cancers, skin cancers, ovarian cancers, breast cancers, nasopharyngeal cancers, lung cancers, mesotheliomas, Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, glioblastoma multiforme, hepatocellular carcinomas, as well as the inflammatory response related to the infectious agents in cancers. This book covers the metabolic changes that occur because of infection and their support for development of cancers, chronic infection and development of therapeutic strategies for detection and control of the infection. The field of microbiome research has exploded over the last five years, and we are now understanding more and more about the context in which microorganisms can contribute to the onset of cancers in humans. The field of microbiome research has demonstrated that the human body has specific biomes for tissues and that changes in these biomes at the specific organ sites can result in disease. These changes can result in dramatic differences in metabolic shifts that, together with genetic mutations, will produce the perfect niche for establishment of the particular infection programmes in that organ site. We are just beginning to understand what those changes are and how they influence the disease state. Overall, we hope to bring together the varying degrees of fluctuations in the microbiome at the major organ sites and how these changes affect the normal cellular processes because of dysregulation, leading to proliferation of the associated tissues.

This book ventures into a new and exciting area of discovery that directly ties our current knowledge of cancer to the discovery of microorganisms associated with different types of cancers. Recent studies demonstrate that microorganisms are directly linked to the establishment of cancers and that they can also contribute to the initiation, as well as persistence of, the cancers. Microbiome and Cancer covers the current knowledge of microbiome and its association with human cancers. It provides important reading for novices, senior undergraduates in cancer and microbiology, graduate students, junior investigators, residents, fellows and established investigators in the fields of cancer and microbiology.^We cover areas related to known, broad concepts in microbiology and how they can relate to the ongoing discoveries of the micro-environment and the changes in the metabolic and physiologic states in that micro-environment, which are important for the ongoing nurturing and survival of the poly-microbial content that dictates activities in that micro-environment. We cover the interactions of microorganisms associated with gastric carcinomas, which are important for driving this particular cancer. Additional areas include oral cancers, skin cancers, ovarian cancers, breast cancers, nasopharyngeal cancers, lung cancers, mesotheliomas, Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, glioblastoma multiforme, hepatocellular carcinomas, as well as the inflammatory response related to the infectious agents in cancers.^This book covers the metabolic changes that occur because of infection and their support for development of cancers, chronic infection and development of therapeutic strategies for detection and control of the infection. The field of microbiome research has exploded over the last five years, and we are now understanding more and more about the context in which microorganisms can contribute to the onset of cancers in humans. The field of microbiome research has demonstrated that the human body has specific biomes for tissues and that changes in these biomes at the specific organ sites can result in disease. These changes can result in dramatic differences in metabolic shifts that, together with genetic mutations, will produce the perfect niche for establishment of the particular infection programmes in that organ site. We are just beginning to understand what those changes are and how they influence the disease state.^Overall, we hope to bring together the varying degrees of fluctuations in the microbiome at the major organ sites and how these changes affect the normal cellular processes because of dysregulation, leading to proliferation of the associated tissues.

Growing numbers of cancer patients are exploring diet, food supplements, herbs, and nontoxic immunotherapies like bacterial vaccines as a means of therapy. Yet most cancer research organizations refuse to even evaluate these alternatives. Can Bacteria Cause Cancer? argues convincingly that unless this neglected world of alternative therapies is properly scrutinized, the medical Vietnam of the twentieth century may well affect one in two people by the twenty-first century. David J. Hess investigates one of the great medical mysteries of the twentieth century—the relationship between bacteria and chronic disease. Recently scientists have overturned long-held beliefs by demonstrating that bacterial infections cause many ulcers; they are now reconsidering the role of bacterial infections in other chronic diseases, such as arthritis. Is it possible, Hess asks, that bacteria can contribute to the many other known causes of cancer? To answer this intriguing question, Hess takes us into the world of alternative cancer researchers. Maintaining that their work has been actively suppressed rather than simply dismissed, he examines their claims-—that bacterial vaccines have led to some dramatic cases of long-term cancer remission—and the scientific potential of their theories. Economic interests and cultural values, he demonstrates, have influenced the rush toward radiation and chemotherapy and the current cul-de-sac of toxic treatments. More than a medical mystery story, Can Bacteria Cause Cancer? is a dramatic case study of the failure of the war on cancer.