Inflammation and cancer
Inflammation is your body’s natural response to infection or injury. In normal circumstances, inflammation eliminates foreign invaders (bacteria or viruses) and damaged cells to heal wounds within hours or days. However, this life-saving process can also be harmful. Chronic inflammation is linked to more than 50 per cent of all deaths worldwide and one in five cancers.
When does inflammation become a problem?
How does inflammation contribute to cancer?
What causes chronic inflammation?
Inflammation and cancer research at Hudson Institute
Ongoing research is shedding light on how long-lasting inflammation may contribute to certain aggressive cancers, including those affecting the lungs and stomach. Our scientists are working to uncover how the immune system’s response to inflammation might play a role in cancer development. By understanding this connection, we aim to
- Reveal how inflammation affects tumour growth
- Develop new medications that target inflammation to fight cancer
- Improve treatments for cancer patients.
This research brings hope for better ways to prevent and treat cancer.
Inflammation and cancer research projects underway
Boosting IL-18 to defeat cancer
The immune system has the ability to defeat cancer, but often needs to be turned up to work effectively. One immune protein that can work well is called IL-18, but is not very active in most types of cancer. Professor Master’s team has designed a product that increases IL-18 activity and is looking to turn this into an anti-cancer therapy.
Lead researcher | Professor Seth Masters
Closing in on ovarian cancer therapy
RNA therapeutics for immunotherapy
Molecular studies. Cancer cells are good at hiding from the immune system. However, if immune cells engage with tumours, the immune system can learn to recognise and remove every single cancer cell. Associate Professor Gantier is investigating how RNA therapeutics, similar to those used in mRNA vaccines, can be used to reignite immune activity in tumour cells to drive systemic anti-tumoral responses. This work has immense potential for the treatment many different cancers, including leukaemia.Inflammation in cancer cells
Cancer treatments. Associate Professor Gantier is studying how DNA damage initiates inflammatory responses that build resistance against chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This collaborative work with an industry partner, has the potential to revolutionise the efficacy of front-line treatments such as radiotherapy against multiple cancers.Immune responses that dictate metastatic spread in breast cancer
Molecular studies. The mechanisms that regulate the process of metastases of breast cancer cells to other organs such as the lungs and bone are regulated by the process of inflammation which brings specialist immune cells into proximity to eliminate the metastatic tumour cells. Professor Hertzog’s focus is on the molecules that block the metastatic process and stimulate the immune response in regulating this process.A new therapeutic target for Helicobacter pylori-induced stomach cancer
Therapeutic target Infection by the bacterium, H. pylori, is a major factor in the development of stomach cancer. Professor Ferrero’s group showed that stomach tissues produce a molecule that reduces the inflammatory changes associated with cancer induced by H. pylori infection. This molecule may be targeted in therapeutic strategies to treat inflammation-induced cancer.Bacterial vesicles impact host cell functions and modulate inflammation
Illuminating the roles of STAT3 in health and disease
Molecular studies. The STAT gene family is essential for the transmission of chemical signals in cells. One member of this family, STAT3, is essential for life and unregulated changes to its activity result in disease including cancer and immune disorders. Dr Dan Gough’s team uses pre-clinical models, mass-spectrometry, structural biology and biochemistry to investigate the way that STAT3 drives disease and identify new therapies.Inflammation and cancer news
Inflammation and cancer collaborators
- Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre
- Noxopharm
- University of Queensland
- Integrated DNA Technologies
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
- Harvard Medical School
- University of Toronto
- University of Hohenheim
- Morningside Ventures
- DUKE-NUS (Singapore)
- Kanazawa University
- University of Kiel
- University of Arizona
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Explore our labs
Support for people with inflammation and cancer
Hudson Institute scientists do not provide medical advice.
Find out more about inflammation and cancer.
- Breast Cancer Network Australia
- National Breast Cancer Foundation
- McGrath Foundation
- PanKind
- Cancer Council Victoria
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