Chronic Inflammation in Cancer: The Role of Human Viruses

While the process of inflammation is a normal biological process to protect the body from harmful stimuli, chronic inflammation has been linked to a number of human diseases, including cancer. A number of agents can stimulate a chronic inflammatory response, which in turn promotes carcinogenesis. Here, we will describe how chronic inflammation is established through changes in cytokine signaling, perturbations of the NF-κB pathway, DNA damage, and physiological changes within the microenvironment and how these changes also contribute to tumorigenesis. In addition, we will describe the direct and indirect mechanisms by which infection by six viruses—Epstein-Barr, human herpesvirus-8, hepatitis B and C, human papilloma, and human T-lymphotropic virus type 1—induces chronic inflammation leading to tumor formation.