Malignant Tumors

The inflammatory immune response system that is the basis of our body’s initial response to foreign substances that enter our body is not exclusive to our species and neither has it evolved extensively over time, because it has “worked so well that many aspects of it have been preserved during the protracted aeons of evolution.” The article, “A Malignant Flame” in Scientific American, discusses the significance of researching on the innate inflammation response system because this might also be a contributing factor that aides cancerous cells and tumor growth. It seems that a link exists between immune cells and the spread of malignant tumor cells throughout the body, known as metastases, because those very same immune cells that “normally participate in healing cuts and scrapes…are hijacked to become co-conspirators that aid and abet carcinogenesis.”

The fact is that recent studies and research have found that though our innate immune system response is very effective, if the immune cells linger and stay in the area that is “chronically inflamed,” it helps in an illness becoming a full blown disease such as heart disease and arthritis--taking this idea further, pre-malignant tumor cells can use our body’s inflammatory response to become malignant tumors. Our innate immune system is actually both, helpful and harmful to us. In a study of the late 1990s by Frances Balkwill of University of London, a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) that is similar to immune hormones of our body was injected into mice, and it was actually working in conjugation with the tumor and helping it grow. If the TNF lingers too long in the area that has pathogens, then it helps the malignant cells grow. This concept is clearly highlighted by the article, “the immune system functions as a double edged sword.” Our system responds differently according to conditions, for example our killer cells such as macrophages are one of the most helpful cells in “eating” foreign pathogenic substances but these macrophages are “reeducated by cancer cells to do their bidding,” and, “they become factories of cytokines and growth factors that nurture tumor development.”

Research by biologists and immunologists has even found specific molecules that act as “master switch for turning inflammation genes on and for controlling cell death.” One such molecule is called the nuclear factor-kappa B, which has become widely famous because of the research that has shown promising results. When this molecule was blocked in mice that were engineered to develop hepatitis, by researchers at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the precancerous cells did not reach full blown malignancy. In some cases the blocking of the molecule led to the death of cancerous cells.

The task at hand is to figure out how to use the knowledge on our inflammation immune response system and apply it. I know how much we depend on our immune system but we need a way to cancel out its harmful actions that lead to the growth and spread of malignant tumor cells. There is research being done, by Claire Lewis and Munitta Muthana of University of Sheffield in England, which tries to get macrophages to come to certain oxygen starved areas of tumors where they first fight against the harmful substance and second, multiply their cell killing toxins so that they can fight to kill all tumor cells. The prospects are hopeful but the work that needs to be done, in terms of research and constant effort to find out how to use the inflammation immune cells only to benefit and not harm us, is overwhelming. I am optimistic that we will find out a way to fix or cancel out the part that inflammation and immune cells play in fueling the progress of pre-malignant tumor cells to malignant cells.