Blocking Tumor-Elicited Inflammation & The Impact on Cancer Growth

Interesting short article published in Nature.  It discusses how tumor-associated inflammatory reaction can lead to cancer, but what happens when this inflammatory response is disrupted, blocked, interrupted?  Something to think about.

Blocking Tumor-Induced Inflammation Impacts Cancer Development The findings are published in the October 3, 2012 Advanced Online Edition of Nature.

Oct. 3, 2012 — Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report the discovery of microbial–dependent mechanisms through which some cancers mount an inflammatory response that fuels their development and growth.

The association between chronic inflammation and tumor development has long been known from the early work of German pathologist Rudolph Virchow. Harvard University pathologist Harold Dvorak later compared tumors with “wounds that never heal,” noting the similarities between normal inflammation processes that characterize wound- healing and tumorigenesis or tumor-formation.

Indeed, 15 to 20 percent of all cancers are preceded by chronic inflammation – a persistent immune response that can target both diseased and healthy tissues. Chronic hepatitis, for example, may result in hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) and inflammatory bowel disease can eventually cause a form of colon cancer, known as colitis-associated cancer.

FDA finds more blood cancer with TNF blocker drugs *Reuters Article*

FDA finds more blood cancer with TNF blocker drugs

WASHINGTON | Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:15pm EDT

(Reuters) - U.S. health regulators have received more reports of rare blood cancer in young patients taking a class of anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat digestive disorders.

The drugs, called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers, are used to treat Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis that cause inflammation of the digestive system.

They include such widely used products as Merck & Co Inc's and Johnson & Johnson's Remicade and Simponi, Amgen Inc's Enbrel, Abbott Laboratories Inc's Humira and UCB SA's Cimzia.

The Food and Drug Administration has previously warned of an increased risk of lymphomas and other cancers associated with the use of TNF blockers in children and adolescents.

In its communication on Thursday, the FDA said the blood cancer, known as Hepatosplenic T-Cell Lymphoma or HSTCL, was reported primarily in adolescents and young adults who were taking TNF blockers, as well as other drugs such as azathioprine that also suppress the immune system and mercaptopurine, a leukemia drug.

The product labels for Remicade and Humira have been updated and the product labels for azathioprine and mercaptopurine were being updated to include warnings about HSTCL, the FDA said on its website.

The majority of the cases reported were in patients being treated for Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, the FDA said, but the reports also included a patient being treated for psoriasis and two patients being treated for rheumatoid arthritis.

TNF blockers suppress the immune system by blocking the activity of TNF (tumor necrosis factor), a substance in the body that can cause inflammation and lead to immune-system diseases.