Interleukin-8 and Interleukin-17 for Cancer

Pro-inflammatory cytokines have been associated with chronic inflammation and inflammatory diseases. Increased levels of interleukins (ILs) have been associated with inflammatory disease exacerbation. ILs levels have been observed to be associated with advance stage cancer for several types of cancer and a poor prognostic maker for malignant disease. Moreover; increased levels of cytokines induce tumorigenesis. There are several paradigms such as the hepatocellular carcinoma induced from chronic inflammation of an underlying hepatitis. In the current review, we will focus on IL-8 and -17. These two ILs as in the case of others, induce neo-angiogenesis through activation of the vascular endothelial growth (VEGF) factor pathway. Additionally, they enhance the activity of matrixmetalloproteinase-2 and -9 (MMP-2,-9) which in turn increase the metastatic activity of the underlying malignancy. Inhibition of cytokine production could be a potential treatment both for chronic inflammatory diseases and tumor modulation. Local microenvironment modulation could be applied in surgery resected patients as in the case of lung cancer in order to enhance the local immune activity.