Links between Infections, Lung Cancer, and the Immune System

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading disease of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Since the beginning of the 20th century, various infectious agents associated with lung cancer have been identified. The mechanisms that include systemic inflammatory pathways as effect of microbial persistence in the lung can secondarily promote the development of lung carcinogenesis. Chronic inflammation associated with lung-cancer infections is known to precede tumor development, and it has a strong effect on the response(s) to therapy. In fact, both viral and bacterial infections can activate inflammatory cells and inflammatory signaling pathways. In this review, an overview of critical findings of recent studies investigating associations between each of viral and bacterial pathogens and lung carcinoma is provided, with particular emphasis on how infectious organisms can interfere with oncogenic processes and all the way through immunity. Moreover, a discussion of the direct crosstalk between lung tumor development and inflammatory processes is also presented.

What’s the difference between lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma? Evidence from a retrospective analysis in a cohort of Chinese patients

“…Links between infection, inflammation and lung cancer has been fully defined and the mechanism has been established that systemic inflammatory pathways as effect of microbial persistence in the lung can secondarily promote the development of lung carcinogenesis ( 26 ). In the present study, we showed that patients with LUSC have more frequent cough, fever, microbial infection and larger number of leukocytes than that in patients with LUAD.…”

Identification and Validation of lncRNA-SNHG17 in Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Novel Prognostic and Diagnostic Indicator

“…Cancer seriously affects the survival and life of patients, especially lung cancer (LC), which is the main contributor to global cancer mortality, causing more than 700,000 deaths every year ( 1 ). Recent research shows that cancer is closely related to autoimmunity, and immunotherapy as a new treatment method has received extensive attention in the field of cancer therapy ( 2 ). Immune infiltration in the tumor microenvironment (TME) is the basis of immunotherapy and plays a key role in tumorigenesis and development and also affects the clinical prognosis of patients ( 3 ).…”

The Implications of Noncoding RNAs in the Evolution and Progression of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)-Related HCC

“…This complex metabolic disorder has recently emerged as one of the main contributing factors to HCC development. The link between human cancer and viral infections has already been well documented [ 15 , 16 ]. However, although cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis B infection remain the main risk factors linked with HCC (in 50% of all cases), a growing amount of clinical evidence suggests that approximately 24% of the HCC cases are a consequence of neglected NAFLD [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”