- Book information
- Cancer Virus: The story of Epstein-Barr virus by Dorothy H. Crawford, Alan Rickinson and Ingólfur Johannessen
- Published by: Oxford University Press
- Price: £16.99
About 95 per cent of us are infected with the Epstein-Barr virus. Cancer Virus is the compelling, thriller-like tale of its discovery
FEW words have the power to induce terror: cancer is one, virus another. Imagine, then, the awful potency of something that merges the two.
Cancer Virus tells its story through the scientists who worked on it. It reads like a thriller, starting with the mystery of the African children with swollen faces – caused by Burkitt's lymphoma – and the controversial idea that a virus might be behind it. The book moves on to the revelation that the same virus was implicated in seemingly unrelated diseases, and finally to ways to destroy it.
The authors also offer a potted history of virology, touching on the discovery of infectious agents at the turn of the 20th century, and highlighting how technological limitations made it so difficult to prove the link between cancer and a virus.
Cancer Virus made me reflect on just how quickly biology has progressed: in the 1960s, electron microscopy was in its infancy, and DNA-based techniques for characterising what might be lurking in tissue simply didn't exist. Even proving the presence of viral particles was a massive challenge.
All three narrators were involved in EBV research and so occasionally veer into complex explanations – they do provide a helpful glossary, though. Overall, the book is compelling and colourful, capturing the romance of scientific discovery so well that it is exciting and accessible. It made me wish I had been involved in unravelling such a fascinating mystery.
The discovery of EBV paved the way for the identification of other cancer-causing viruses, including human papillomavirus (HPV), and hepatitis B. These account for between 3 and 4 per cent of western cancers, but in Africa they are responsible for about 33 per cent. The knowledge gained in the riveting search for EBV is leading to vaccination programmes that should slash the human toll.
This article appeared in print under the headline "The killer within"
Linda Geddes is a biology features editor for New Scientist
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