Candida albicans and cancer: Can this yeast induce cancer development or progression?

Abstract

There is currently increasing concern about the relation between microbial infections and cancer. More and more studies support the view that there is an association, above all, when the causal agents are bacteria or viruses. This review adds to this, summarizing evidence that the opportunistic fungus Candida albicans increases the risk of carcinogenesis and metastasis. Until recent years, Candida spp. had fundamentally been linked to cancerous processes as it is an opportunist pathogen that takes advantage of the immunosuppressed state of patients particularly due to chemotherapy. In contrast, the most recent findings demonstrate that C. albicans is capable of promoting cancer by several mechanisms, as described in the review: production of carcinogenic byproducts, triggering of inflammation, induction of Th17 response and molecular mimicry. We underline the need not only to control this type of infection during cancer treatment, especially given the major role of this yeast species in nosocomial infections, but also to find new therapeutic approaches to avoid the pro-tumor effect of this fungal species.

• Carcinogen
• carcinogenesis
• inflammation
• metastasis
• tumor

Acknowledgements

We thank Ideas Need Communicating Languages Services for proofreading and improving the use of English in the manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. This work has been supported by the SAIOTEK program (grant S-PE12UN075 and S-PE13UN083) of the Basque Government, and grant EHUA13/14, as well as support for the research group (GIU12/44) and the research and training units (UFI Grant UFI11/25), at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).