How a ubiquitous herpesvirus sometimes leads to cancer
Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 20:30
in Health & Medicine
Most of us are infected with the herpesvirus known as Epstein-Barr virus. For most of us, the virus will lead at worst to a case of infectious mononucleosis, but sometimes, and especially in some parts of the world, those viruses are found in association with cancer. Now, researchers have found that the difference between a relatively harmless infection and a cancer-causing one lies at least partly in the viral strain itself.