The Nutritional Effects of Infections Early in Life with Consequences Several Decades Later

Presently, close to 20 percent of the global incidence of human cancers have been linked to predominantly viral infections. The identification of the high-risk human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 and the establishment of their causal role in cervical cancer paved the way for the development of specific preventive vaccines.

Epidemiological patterns also point to the possible role additional infections may play in the etiology of other common human cancers. Prof. zur Hausen identified infectious nutritional factors originating from the consumption of Eurasian cattle meat and dairy cattle products, and our results have shown that these infections occur mainly in the first year of life after weaning. The available data allows for the development of a coherent concept for the pathogenesis of colon cancer as an example of indirect carcinogenesis by specific triggers resulting in random mutations. This concept is potentially applicable to breast cancer and several other human malignancies of unknown etiology.