Rapid Review·General Pathology
Select any text to highlight it or add a note.
NEOPLASIA
T1Must knowOncogenic Microbes
P222
Focus on
The bugs that cause cancer.
Key takeaways
The pattern
The pattern behind the microbe list
chronic infection means chronic inflammation and chronic cell turnover, and a few viruses go further by directly inactivating tumor suppressors.Viruses
| Microbe | Associated Cancer |
|---|---|
| EBV | Burkitt lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, primary CNS lymphoma in the immunocompromised |
| HBV, HCV | Hepatocellular carcinoma |
| HHV-8 | Kaposi sarcoma, remembered as "Kasi" for HHV-8 |
| HPV (16, 18) | Cervical, penile, and anal carcinoma, plus head and neck cancer. E6 degrades p53; E7 degrades Rb |
| HTLV-1 | Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma |
| HIV | Primary CNS lymphoma once CD4 falls below 100/µL, plus squamous cell carcinomas in general |
Bacteria and parasites
| Microbe | Associated Cancer |
|---|---|
| H. pylori | Gastric adenocarcinoma and MALT lymphoma |
| Liver fluke (Clonorchis sinensis) | Cholangiocarcinoma |
| Schistosoma haematobium | Squamous cell bladder cancer, the outlier against the usual TCC |
| Streptococcus gallolyticus (bovis) | Colorectal cancer, and it causes endocarditis in that same patient |
A patient has endocarditis caused by Streptococcus gallolyticus (bovis). What additional workup does this organism call for?
A colonoscopy. S. gallolyticus bacteremia and endocarditis are associated with colorectal cancer, so the colon must be examined.
How it's tested
The two viral oncoproteins are asked by mechanism: HPV E6 degrades p53 and E7 degrades Rb, so both G1→S brakes are removed at once, which is why HPV 16/18 drives cervical, anal and oropharyngeal carcinoma.
The outlier worth memorizing is Schistosoma haematobium → SQUAMOUS cell carcinoma of the bladder, against the transitional cell carcinoma that bladder cancer otherwise always is.
Go deeper
First Aid "Oncogenic microbes" table; Pathoma Ch. 3; SketchyMicro oncogenic viruses. Anchor HPV E6/E7 (degrade p53/Rb) and the Schistosoma → SCC of bladder outlier (vs the usual TCC).
Flashcards for this page
Card 1 of 5 · try-out only, nothing is saved
(...)
You just read one page of 944
The rest of Step 1, written exactly like this.
Rapid Review is the reading layer of a full Step 1 platform: a schedule fitted to your exam date, flashcards for every page, and a mentor a message away.
Every Step 1 system
Written the same way: what to know, how it’s tested, where to go deeper.
A plan built to your exam date
Tell us when you sit, and the schedule fits the whole library and your question bank to it.
Flashcards for every page
Ready-made spaced-repetition decks linked to each topic, so nothing you read gets forgotten.
