Tumor-Promoting Inflammation

The immune system interacts complexly and closely with the tumor process from its initial stages to the progression of the tumor disease and the development of metastases. These interactions take place both at the level of the tumor macro- and microenvironment and can act both inhibitory or stimulatory on tumor growth. The role of the immune system in cancer is characterized by two hallmarks of cancer, namely, “tumor-promoting inflammation” and “avoiding immune destruction” (Hanahan and Weinberg 2011; Vinay et al. 2015). In this chapter, the influence of the nervous system on tumor-promoting inflammation will be described.