Bacterial infections traditionally have not been considered major causes of cancer. Recently,
however, bacteria have been linked to cancer by two mechanisms: induction of chronic
inflammation and production of carcinogenic bacterial metabolites. The most specific
example of the inflammatory mechanism of carcinogenesis is Helicobacter pylori infection.
H. pylori has been epidemiologically linked to adenocarcinoma of the distal stomach by its
propensity to cause lifelong inflammation. This inflammation is in turn thought to cause …