Co-infection and Cancer (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to enhance mechanistic and epidemiologic investigations addressing the roles of co-infection and cancer to shed light on presently unestablished pathways in carcinogenesis that may inform prevention and treatment strategies for infection-related cancers. Co-infection is defined as the occurrence of infections by two or more infectious (pathogenic or non-pathogenic) agents either concurrently or sequentially and includes both acute and chronic infections by viruses, bacteria, parasites, and/or other microorganisms. Preference will be given to investigations of co-infections with known oncogenic agents (excluding human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]) and of co-infections that engender novel opportunities for prevention and treatment.