CANCER-RELATED INFLAMMATION
The link between inflammation and cancer isn’t new, in 1863, Virchow theorized that cancer emerges from the foci of chronic inflammation. In his part, he theorized that some types of irritants and tissue injury enhance cell proliferation . Inflammation is defined as when the body confronts agents like viruses, bacteria or toxic chemicals or suffers an injury, the immune system gets activated . Our immune system sends some responders like Cytokines and inflammatory cells, as well as other white blood cells, produce substances that divide and grow cells, rebuild the tissue and repair the damage. When the injury heals, the inflammatory process ends. In chronic Inflammation, the process of inflammation begins without injury and doesn’t stop when needed. It can be caused by a condition such as an abnormal immune response to healthy cells, and persistent infection though it’s usually unknown why the inflammation persists. Gradually, chronic inflammation may damage DNA and triggers cancer. For instance, individuals with IBD such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are at increased risk of colon cancer. In the host, persistent infection causes chronic inflammation because white blood cells and other phagocytes induce DNA damage in the proliferating cells by releasing reactive oxygen and reactive nitrates which are normally released to combat inflammation, then reacts to form mutagenic substance peroxynitrite . Therefore, repeated tissue damage and regeneration in the presence of highly reactive nitrogen and oxygen released by inflammatory cells interact with the proliferating epithelial DNA causing point mutations and deletions, resulting in permanent genomic changes . In cancer development, the role of chronic inflammation is not a minor one. It is believed that one in five cancer caused by inflammation . Pancreatic, colitis and hepatitis are examples of inflammatory diseases that are linked to a greater risk of liver, colon and pancreatic cancer. These diseases cause DNA damage and divide the cells. Chronic inflammation like H.pylori is linked to stomach cancer, whereas hepatitis B and hepatitis C are related to liver cancer . Human herpesvirus 8 is linked with Kaposi sarcoma. People with esophagitis and Barrett’s metaplasia along with chronic pancreatitis are at higher risk of oesophageal and pancreatic cancer . A link between chronic asthma and Lung cancer, Foreskin infection and penile Cancer, and Ovarian epithelial infection leads to ovarian cancer, prostatitis infection and prostate cancer are all observed . In the past few years, scientists are focused on the development of anti-malignant drugs, nonetheless, poor responses and chronic toxicity are still in the news. The recent therapeutic approach for cancer therapy is immunotherapy and mast cells represent the essential target for immunotherapy .