Sustained Mild Inflammation in Cancer Survivors: Where to from Here?

Inflammation is a well-known consequence of many traditional cancer treatments that can serve to enhance antitumor immunity and promote unwanted side effects. These side effects are often sustained long after cancer treatment has ended and may coincide with sustained chronic low-grade systemic inflammation that compromises the health of organs in the body and central nervous system (CNS). Assessment of circulating cytokines and their downstream products are considered to serve as potential biomarkers for systemic inflammation, identifying cancer survivors at risk of inflammation-associated disorders. In relation to the CNS, inflammatory markers are associated with cancer-related fatigue (1); anxiety and depression (2); and, in some studies in women with breast cancer, with cancer-related cognitive impairment (3), but the markers are not seen in men and women with colorectal cancer (4). Despite our increasing understanding of the association between inflammation and these brain-related side effects, we know far less about the effects of specific cancer treatments on inflammatory markers.