Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Oct;36(10):1085-93.
doi: 10.1093/carcin/bgv123. Epub 2015 Sep 8.

Immunosuppression associated with chronic inflammation in the tumor microenvironment

Dingzhi Wang  1 , Raymond N DuBois  2
Affiliations
Review

Immunosuppression associated with chronic inflammation in the tumor microenvironment

Dingzhi Wang et al. Carcinogenesis. 2015 Oct.

Abstract

Chronic inflammation contributes to cancer development via multiple mechanisms. One potential mechanism is that chronic inflammation can generate an immunosuppressive microenvironment that allows advantages for tumor formation and progression. The immunosuppressive environment in certain chronic inflammatory diseases and solid cancers is characterized by accumulation of proinflammatory mediators, infiltration of immune suppressor cells and activation of immune checkpoint pathways in effector T cells. In this review, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of how immunosuppression contributes to cancer and how proinflammatory mediators induce the immunosuppressive microenvironment via induction of immunosuppressive cells and activation of immune checkpoint pathways.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The role of MDSCs in chronic inflammation and cancer.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The role of Tregs in chronic inflammation and cancer.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The role of checkpoint pathways in chronic inflammation and cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lakatos P.L., et al. (2008) Risk for colorectal cancer in ulcerative colitis: changes, causes and management strategies. World J. Gastroenterol., 14, 3937–3947. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kuper H., et al. (2000) Infections as a major preventable cause of human cancer. J. Intern. Med., 248, 171–183. - PubMed
    1. Algra A.M., et al. (2012) Effects of regular aspirin on long-term cancer incidence and metastasis: a systematic comparison of evidence from observational studies versus randomised trials. Lancet Oncol., 13, 518–527. - PubMed
    1. Harris R.E. (2009) Cyclooxygenase-2 (cox-2) blockade in the chemoprevention of cancers of the colon, breast, prostate, and lung. Inflammopharmacology, 17, 55–67. - PubMed
    1. Rothwell P.M., et al. (2012) Short-term effects of daily aspirin on cancer incidence, mortality, and non-vascular death: analysis of the time course of risks and benefits in 51 randomised controlled trials. Lancet, 379, 1602–1612. - PubMed

Publication types