Neoplasms

Inflammation is a critical process in the generation of neoplasms.It causes genomic instability, which allows cells to acquire the functional properties of a cancer cell or the “hallmarks of cancer.Epidemiological observations highlight the utility of colorectal cancer as a paradigm for inflammation associated cancer and recent research has demonstrated multiple roles for inflammation in neoplastic transformation. People with inflammatory bowel diseases, which are characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation, have a dramatically increased life-time risk of developing colorectal cancer. Moreover, risk of disease increases with severity and duration of inflammation reaching as high as 40% in people diagnosed with pan colitis before 15 years of age. The assumption thus far has been that inflammation leads to the production of reactive oxygen species that cause DNA damage and neoplastic transformation. While this is correct, recent work has highlighted additional, specific roles for inflammation in cancer development. This commentary will focus on insights provided by mechanistic studies in pre-clinical models of colorectal cancer that have shed light on new roles for inflammation in the development of colorectal cancer.

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Last date updated on May, 2024