Viral infections are annoying on their own, but sometimes, they can even trigger the onset of cancerous tumors. This means having experienced a bout of COVID-19 could open the door to cancer later in life. According to former cancer researcher and founder of cancer-fighting nonprofit Music Beats Cancer, Dr. Mona Jhaveri, the connection between cancer and COVID-19 is currently unknown.
Which viruses can cause cancer?
Researchers at Harvard Medical School estimate that viral infections are responsible for 15% to 20% of cancer cases globally. “This amounts to 770 million cases worldwide and 7 million deaths,” Dr. Jhaveri points out.
According to Dr. Jhaveri, several viruses have been linked to causing cancer. “These include Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B virus, and human herpesvirus-8,” she says.
How do viruses like these cause cancer? In several ways. First and foremost, viruses can spur the person’s body to start making tumors.
How viruses can cause cancerous tumors
“Viruses can cause cancer by inserting their DNA or RNA into the cell of a human host,” Dr. Jhaveri explains. “In doing so, the virus ‘hijacks’ the human cell and drives carcinogenesis by activating proteins that turn on cell proliferation and immortality.”
Carcinogenesis is the multi-step process by which cancer initially forms a tumor. Basically, the viruses act as “intracellular parasites,” as the Harvard researchers call them. They trick the body into making more new cells than it needs, producing a potentially malignant growth.
“Viruses are Darwinian in that some have evolved to infect, hijack, and alter their host cell in a way that does not kill it but gives the cell a selective advance so that the virus can multiply and invade other cells,” Dr. Jhaveri explains. “Hence, tumor formation is a consequence of viral evolution to multiply and spread from host cell to host cell, sustaining its existence.”
But that’s not the only way these viruses can cause cancer.
Other ways viruses can cause cancer
“Viruses can also induce damage in the host’s DNA or introduce fatal mutations, rendering the cell malignant,” Dr. Jhaveri continues. In this way, the body’s own cells can turn against it. This process is called “viral pathogenesis.”
Moreover, viruses can weaken the person, making recovery more difficult. “Viruses can alter the immune system so that the body is less capable of fighting off cancer cells that have developed for unrelated reasons,” Dr. Jhaveri says. “Finally, some viruses can cause chronic inflammation, which is the precursor for carcinogenesis.”
The ability of some viruses to promote the development of cancer has raised questions about COVID-19. Can having contracted COVID also be a risk factor for cancer later in life?
No proven link between COVID-19 and cancer
“Currently, there is no clear link between COVID-19 and cancer,” Dr. Jhaveri says. “There is speculation that COVID, due to its characteristics and inflammatory features, may act like a cancer-causing virus. However, establishing cancer as a long-term complication of COVID infection will take years of scientific research. It is difficult to establish causal relationships definitively — rigorous longitudinal studies are required.”
Conspiracy theories have attempted to suggest that anti-COVID vaccines could be responsible for triggering cancer, but Dr. Jhaveri combats this disinformation.
COVID-19 vaccines are safe
“It has not been shown that the COVID vaccine causes or accelerates cancer,” Dr. Jhaveri says. “Those who are making this claim have misinterpreted the study of the mRNA cancer vaccine in mice.”
According to a FactCheck.org exposé, opponents of vaccines misinterpret a meta-analysis reviewing all of the research done up until that point in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. These conspiracy theorists twist their findings to cast doubt on the mRNA vaccines that helped the world successfully overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
At issue is a single experiment covered in the meta-analysis that involved mice. “What the study actually showed is that both unmodified mRNA and modified mRNA induced immune responses against the tumor antigens, but only the unmodified mRNA reduced cancer growth and metastasis, while the modified mRNA didn’t,” the fact checker explains.
“Suggesting that the vaccines for COVID-19 are unsafe is irresponsible,” Dr. Jhaveri says. “In no way are these claims based in science.”
What we can do today to fight cancer
The world has largely created its “new normal” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet its more long-term effects are as yet unknown. Is it possible that this virus could trigger the development of cancer later in life? Some believe so, but a lengthy process of scientific research will be necessary to establish any such connection creditably.
“I prefer to focus on what we can do today to fight cancer,” Dr. Jhaveri says. “Scientists are in their labs right now, working on the groundbreaking new treatments to help the patients of tomorrow. They need support today to stay at their benches, this iswhere we should put our time, energy, and resources.”
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