A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team has identified interaction between two elements of the immune system as critical for the transformation of a protective immune response into chronic, cancer-promoting inflammation. In their report published in PNAS, the investigators demonstrate that elevated levels of the immune factor IL-33 and regulatory T cells (Tregs), which suppress the action of tumor-fighting immune cells, set the stage for the development of skin cancer associated with chronic dermatitis and colorectal cancer in patients with colitis. “Our research has revealed a critical immunological axis that initiates the development of cancer-promoting chronic inflammation,” says Shawn Demehri, MD, PhD, of the MGH Center for Cancer Immunology and the Cutaneous Biology Research Center, senior author of the report. “This axis is chronic inflammation’s ‘Achilles heel,’ and blocking it promises to prevent cancer development in chronic inflammation, which accounts for almost 20 percent of all human cancer deaths worldwide.” Types of cancer associated with chronic inflammation include inflammatory bowel disease-associated colorectal cancer, hepatitis-associated liver cancer, gastritis-associated stomach cancer, and skin cancers associated with several inflammatory diseases of the skin. The authors note that the activity of certain immune cells – including Tregs, type 2 T helper cells and macrophages – distinguishes cancer-inducing, chronic inflammation from acute inflammation, which is characterized by the actions of killer T cells and natural killer cells, which protect against cancer. In their search for factors that may contribute to the transformation from acute to chronic inflammation, the researchers regularly applied an irritating substance to… [Read full story]
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