Alcohol and the Inflammatory Function of Immune Cells in Cancer Development

The concept that inflammation promotes carcinogenesis was first proposed by Rudolf Virchow in 1863 based on the observation that neoplastic tissues were enriched with leukocytes (reviewed in Balkwill and Mantovani 2001). It has since been supported by a large amount of evidence from epidemiological, clinical, and, more recently, molecular genetic studies (Mantovani et al. 2008). Chronic inflammation, mostly resulting from chronic infections, is an underlying condition for up to 15% of all cancers (Table 9.1; Coussens and Werb 2002; Grivennikov et al. 2010). Long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs reduces the risk of developing colon and other cancers. In experimental settings, many key inflammatory cells and factors have been shown to play indispensible roles in various steps of cancer development. Last but not the least, numerous oncogenic/epigenetic changes in human cancers have been functionally linked to their abilities to activate the inflammatory program and/or attract inflammatory cells to the cancer microenvironment.