AUTHOR=Nikitovic Dragana , Tzardi Maria , Berdiaki Aikaterini , Tsatsakis Aristidis , Tzanakakis George N. TITLE=Cancer Microenvironment and Inflammation: Role of Hyaluronan JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=6 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2015.00169 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2015.00169 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

The role of inflammation in the development of cancer was described as early as the nineteenth century. Abundant evidence supports the preposition that various cancers are triggered by infection and chronic inflammatory disease whereas, evading immune destruction has been proposed as one of the new “hallmarks of cancer.” Changes of the tumor microenvironment have been closely correlated to cancer-mediated inflammation. Hyaluronan (HA), an important extracellular matrices component, has become recognized as an active participant in inflammatory, angiogenic, fibrotic, and cancer promoting processes. This review discusses how HA and specific HA-binding proteins participate in and regulate cancer-related inflammatory processes.