INFECTION, INFLAMMATION, AND GASTROINTESTINAL CANCER

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Abstract
This review of recent advances in basic science will focus on newly discovered mechanisms involved in the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). This is potentially a very broad topic, and therefore we have selected two novel mechanisms for emphasis. Firstly, a virus carried by most healthy individuals has been implicated as a possible cause for chromosomal instability (CIN), the process that leads to aneuploidy. Chromosomal aberrations and this form of genomic instability play a major role in the development and progression of multistep carcinogenesis, such as occurs in CRC.2 Secondly, it is abundantly clear that inflammation is carcinogenic, and furthermore, endogenous processes that can modify the ability of the host to cope with inflammation appear to modify the risk of cancer to the host. There is growing evidence that this may be germane to cancer risk in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Almost certainly, additional mechanisms will be found in the future but these may be particularly pertinent for CRC, and perhaps cancer elsewhere in the gut.