The Role of Inflammation in Cancer

HighlightsPrecancerous inflammation can cause increased genetic and epigenetic damageAberrant oncogenic signaling can induce inflammationThe inflammatory response in cancer tissues elicits tumor tissue remodeling and metastasesBrief summary:Cancer related inflammation can fall into one of two categories: 1. precancerous inflammation lesions and 2. Inflammation that is present in almost all cancer tissues including those that have no precancerous inflammation lesions. The connection between inflammation and cancer can be thought of as consisting of two pathways: an extrinsic mechanism, where a constant inflammatory state contributes to increased cancer risk (such as inflammatory bowel disease); and an intrinsic mechanism, where acquired genetic alterations (such as activation of oncogenes) trigger tumor development (Fig. 1).The former can increase the risk to cancer development, while the latter are necessary to maintain and promote cancer progression. The roles and the relationship between the two pathways in the cancer development process depend on their specific interactions between genetic/epigenetic factors and environmental factors. The accumulated evidence, obtained using in vivo and in vitro genetic disease models and the analysis of clinical patient samples by various methods including PCR analysis, strongly favors the theory that both precancerous inflammation and inflammation stemming from genetic alteration can cause cell transformation and promote tumor progressio...
Source: Oncopathology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs