title: Chronic inflammatory states: their relationship to cancer prognosis and symptoms.
abstract: A chronic inflammatory state (CIS) commonly accompanies advanced cancers. Elements of a CIS include aberrant immune system activity and changes in hypothalamic-neuroendocrine control mechanisms. The end result is stimulation of tumour growth and metastases. In addition to tumour stimulation, cancer symptoms may be enhanced. While for most symptoms correlation with a CIS remains tenuous, clearly a CIS is linked to the aetiology of the cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome. To date clinical studies aimed at a CIS are modest, but the increased understanding of the partnership of a CIS, cancer progression and anorexia-cachexia must lead to targeting a CIS in concert with conventional efforts to directly destroy tumour tissue.
authors.affiliation: Gerald Bronfman Centre for Clinical Research in Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. neil.macdonald@mcgill.ca
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: MacDonald
mesh_terms: D000855:Anorexia / Q000209:etiology*; D002100:Cachexia / Q000209:etiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000150:complications*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D011379:Prognosis