• Question: when you are trying to find cancer cells, can you catch cancer.

    Asked by jakepearl to Barbara on 10 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      You can’t catch cancer but you can catch viruses which increase your risk of cancer. An example would be human papilloma virus which is associated with mouth and cervical cancers. There is a vaccine for teenage girls to reduce the risk of infection and that will hopefully decrease the number of women who go on to develop cervical cancer.

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