Cancer Causation: An Emerging Narrative
One contemporary narrative goes like this: most cancers are preventable because most cancers are the result of man’s disregard for “nature”; whether due to pollution or ad campaign-induced bad habits like eating too much. But what if it turns out that a group of microbes that set up shop in our bodies are the real cause of many if not most cancers?
Lung cancer has been the injury at issue in a number of mass tort cases. A host of recently published papers indicates that human papillomavirus may trail only cigarette smoking as the leading cause of lung cancer. See "Incidence of Human Papilloma Virus in Lung Cancer" and "The Role of Human Papilloma Virus in Lung Cancer: A Review of the Evidence"
Human papillomavirus has been associated with lung cancer in numerous studies though there is considerable debate as to whether the correlation is coincidental or causative. The first article reviews the literature and argues for a causative role for HPV in lung cancer. The second article suggests a biologically plausible mechanism for the production of lung cancer by human papillomavirus.
