Epstein-Barr virus lives in nearly every adult on Earth, usually without causing any trouble. When it does lead to cancer, which cancer seems to depend on where you live. In Southeast Asia, it’s mostly tumors in the part of the throat behind the nose. In Europe and the Americas, it’s more often stomach cancer or lymphoma.
That pattern shows up in a new global estimate of cancers caused by infections, published in The Lancet Oncology by researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The study attributes 2.3 million new cancer cases in 2024, more than a tenth of the world’s total, to infections. Epstein-Barr, the virus behind mononucleosis (mono), was linked to about 260,000 of them, a total topped only by H. pylori, HPV, and hepatitis B.
“This updated analysis shows that the landscape of infection-related cancers continues to evolve as scientific evidence advances,” said Gary Clifford, …