For more than a hundred years every generation of microbiologists has isolated so called “cancer germs” from animal and human tumours and some cancer researchers have claimed that these organisms cause cancer and also that in some cases, vaccines could be developed from them to treat this dreaded disease. Despite this longstanding evidence linking microbes and cancer, today's cancer experts believe that, except in the case of a limited number of virus-cancers, microbes do not play an important causative role in cancer. Here, the evidence linking non-virus microorganisms with cancer is discussed and a plea is made that more research interest and funding be directed towards the cancer germ hypothesis.
