LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The four infections, human papillomaviruses, Helicobacter pylori and hepatitis B and C viruses account for 1.9 million cases of cervical, gut and liver cancers. Most cases are in the developing, or third world nations.

The team from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France says more efforts are needed to tackle these preventable cases and more importantly -- recognize cancer as a communicable disease.

The proportion of cancers related to infection is about three times higher in parts of the developing world, such as east Asia, than in developed countries like the U.K. - 22.9 percent versus 7.4 percent, respectively. Alarmingly, nearly a third of these cancer cases occur in people younger than 50 years.

Cancer of the cervix accounted for about half of the infection-related cancers among women. In men, more than 80 percent were liver and gastric cancers.

Doctors Catherine de Martel and Martyn Plummer, who led the research, says that "infections with certain viruses, bacteria, and parasites are some of the biggest and preventable causes of cancer worldwide.

"Application of existing public-health methods for infection prevention, such as vaccination, safer injection practice, or antimicrobial treatments, could have a substantial effect on the future burden of cancer worldwide."

There are currently vaccines that are available to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV), which is linked to cancer of the cervix and hepatitis B virus, which is an established cause of liver cancer.

And experts know that stomach cancer can be avoided by clearing the bacterial infection H. pylori from the gut using a course of antibiotics.

Dr. Goodarz Danaei from Harvard School of Public Medicine in Boston, the U.S., said: "Since effective and relatively low-cost vaccines for HPV and HBV are available, increasing coverage should be a priority for health systems in high-burden countries."

Jessica Harris of Cancer Research U.K. said: "It's important that authorities worldwide make every effort to reduce the number of infection-related cancers, especially when many of these infections can be prevented. In the U.K., infections are thought to be responsible for 3 percent of cancers, or around 9,700 cases each year.

"Vaccination against HPV, which causes cervical cancer, should go a long way towards reducing rates of this disease in the U.K.. But it's important that uptake of the vaccination remains high. At a global level, if the vaccine were available in more countries, many thousands more cases could be prevented."

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