UCLA researchers find chronic inflammation contributes to cancer metastasis

The study reveals a detailed epigenetic mechanism for how interleukin-1-beta, a common cytokine that helps fight infections during inflammation, plays a critical role in cancer metastasis. The researchers found that chronic exposure to interleukin-1-beta can promote lung cancer metastasis through inheritable changes of gene expression without altering DNA sequence. Because of these gene alterations, cancer cells can memorize this phenotype—known as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, an important step during cancer metastasis—to successfully reach distance organs and subsequently colonize.