New mechanisms and therapeutic targets for viral tumors

Abstract

Virus-related cancers remain a notable subset of all cancers, and many are still difficult to control, despite the fact that most infectious diseases other than emerging infectious ones can now be controlled. Among these, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated cancers, which are less common in the West and more common in East Asia, have a particularly poor prognosis. Due to the low frequency of EBV-associated cancers in Europe and the United States, little progress has been made in research and development for new drugs specific to these cancers, making drugs from East Asia essential for improving prognosis. This article focuses on EBV-associated cancers of hematopoietic origin, and describes the current status of various novel therapies, as well as the anti-transferrin antibody for aggressive NK leukemia developed by the author.