The program is supported with 12 million euro from the European Commission for a period of 4 years. INFLA-CARE aims to increase our understanding of how chronic inflammation impinges on cancer and will try to the develop novel approaches for the treatment and improved management of inflammation-associated malignancies, such as liver and colon cancer.

Epidemiological studies revealed that chronic infections and inflammation are major risk factors for various types of cancers, but could obviously not provide any rationale as to why chronic inflammation would influence tumor development and progression.

Within the INFLA-CARE network, the laboratory of Josef Penninger set out to delineate the importance of stress signaling in liver and lung cancer. Mediators of chronic inflammation and environmental cues like pollution, UV irradiation or cigarette smoke impose certain stress responses within premalignant and inflammatory cells. This stress signaling often prevents premalignant cells to become malignant but sometimes even boots transformation to a more invasive tumor. Understanding this ambiguous role of certain signaling molecules will give further insight to inflammation-induced malignancy and might lead new concepts in treatment and therapy of certain malignant diseases.