La inflamación y su relación con el cáncer

Inflammation and cancer have been two of the most studied topics in Biomedical Sciences during the last decades. Scientific and technological advances in the fields of genomics and proteomics have made it is possible to establish with precision a great variety of immunological, cellular and genetic mechanisms that allow inflammation to be directly associated with cancer. Of the many studies derived from this topic, the one written by Hanahan and Weinberg in 2000 stands out, since it describes the biology of cancer in six proper characteristics or hallmarks of tumor development, which are nothing more than a series of responses and biological interactions of tumor cells in their initiation, development and progression phases, which are favored by elements directly or indirectly associated with inflammation. A decade later, the same authors have added more hallmarks to tumor biology and have dug into the role of the inflammatory response as a constant element that allows tumor development and invasion, since the inflammatory response is modulated and organized to promote key elements for tumor survival. The importance of the inflammatory infiltrate is key to understanding the development of neoplasms. This review will describe the main inflammatory cellular elements associated and modified by cancer cells to evade their elimination by the host, and some mechanisms to facilitate their progression.