Role of inflammation in chemical-induced lung cancer

Chemical-induced carcinogenesis has been in the focus of toxicological rese arch for many decades. However, the mechanisms leading to tumor formation a re only understood with certain substances. The intake of potential carcino gens by inhalation is a major route of exposure. Chemical-induced lung tumo rs are the final manifestation of a multistep pathway, resulting in an imba lance between cell proliferation and cell death by apoptosis. The impact of certain confounding factors e.g. extent of inflammatory response, type of genotoxic event, antagonizing principles and genetic background are discuss ed in this article. Finally, methods to assess the inflammatory potential o f chemicals are referred to. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.