This symposium will build on the success of the first, focused conference on microbial carcinogenesis, an EMBO Workshop held in October 2019, which successfully began to connect the various research views regarding bacterial infections and human cancer. It will bring together key players and leading researchers from complementary fields, thereby comprehensively highlighting and discussing the various aspects of pathogen-induced carcinogenesis (ecology, immunology, metabolism, genomics and epigenetics, barrier function and defence etc.) from an interdisciplinary perspective. This conference will also provide a larger audience of young researchers and students with a stimulating platform to present their research, to network and to develop this emerging field further.