title: IKK/nuclear factor-kappaB and oncogenesis: roles in tumor-initiating cells and in the tumor microenvironment.
abstract: The IKK/nuclear factor-kappaB pathway (NF-κB) is critical in proper immune function, cell survival, apoptosis, cellular proliferation, synaptic plasticity, and even memory. While NF-κB is crucial for both innate and adaptive immunity, defective regulation of this master transcriptional regulator is seen in a variety of diseases including autoimmune disease, neurodegenerative disease, and, important to this review, cancer. While NF-κB functions in cancer to promote a number of critical oncogenic functions, here we discuss the importance of the NF-κB signaling pathway in contributing to cancer through promotion of the tumor microenvironment and through maintenance/expansion of tumor-initiating cells, processes that appear to be functionally interrelated.
authors.affiliation: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Bradford
authors.affiliation: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. Electronic address: abaldwin@med.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Albert S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Baldwin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D063646:Carcinogenesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D051550:I-kappa B Kinase / Q000502:physiology*; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000502:physiology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016328:NF-kappa B; D051550:I-kappa B Kinase
keywords: Cancer-associated fibroblast; Cytokine; Nuclear factor-kappaB; Regulatory T lymphocyte; Stroma; Tumor-associated macrophage; Tumor-initiating cell