After a long period of scepticism and disbelief, tumor viruses are today recognized as a significant cancer risk factor for humans. Much has been learned about the viral transforming mechanisms and prophylactic vaccines have been developed against 2 major tumor viruses, HBV and HPV. Yet, many important issues of tumor virology remain unresolved and exciting new ones are emerging from recent discoveries. They define future research directions for the field and include (i) novel strategies for tumor virus hunting, (ii) tumor viruses as experimental tools to study human carcinogenesis, (iii) the interplay between viruses and the world of small noncoding RNAs, (iv) epigenetic interactions between tumor viruses and the host cell, (v) the role of virus/virus interactions for viral carcinogenesis and (vi) novel strategies for prevention and therapy of virus-associated cancers. These topics are discussed by summarizing recent developments, pointing out unresolved issues and suggesting possible strategies for their solution.
Copyright © 2011 UICC.