28.9.11

The Role of Inflammation in Cancer


Highlights
  • Precancerous inflammation can cause increased genetic and epigenetic damage
  • Aberrant oncogenic signaling can induce inflammation
  • The inflammatory response in cancer tissues elicits tumor tissue remodeling and metastases

Brief 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 progression. There is strong evidence that inflammation contributes to the incidence of and mortality resulting from a number of tumor types. Examining this relationship via real-time PCR analysis of gene expression and epigenetic state in the inflammatory and tumor microenvironment will contribute to our understanding of cancer initiation and progression and will aid in the discovery of biomarkers for clinical use and drug development (1-3).


1 comment:

mensajes claro said...

Someday cancer will be conquer.

List of all the posts

Oncopathology