Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Credits and acknowledgements
- Section 1 Introduction
- Section 2 Cancer Symptom Mechanisms and Models: Clinical and Basic Science
- 4 The clinical science of cancer pain assessment and management
- 5 Pain: basic science
- 5a Mechanisms of disease-related pain in cancer: insights from the study of bone tumors
- 5b The physiology of neuropathic pain
- 6 Cognitive dysfunction: is chemobrain real?
- 7 Cognitive impairment: basic science
- 8 Depression in cancer: pathophysiology at the mind-body interface
- 9 Depressive illness: basic science
- 9a Animal models of depressive illness and sickness behavior
- 9b From inflammation to sickness and depression: the cytokine connection
- 10 Cancer-related fatigue: clinical science
- 11 Developing translational animal models of cancer-related fatigue
- 12 Cancer anorexia/weight loss syndrome: clinical science
- 13 Appetite loss/cachexia: basic science
- 14 Sleep and its disorders: clinical science
- 15 Sleep and its disorders: basic science
- 16 Proteins and symptoms
- 17 Genetic approaches to treating and preventing symptoms in patients with cancer
- 18 Functional imaging of symptoms
- 19 High-dose therapy and posttransplantation symptom burden: striking a balance
- Section 3 Clinical Perspectives In Symptom Management and Research
- Section 4 Symptom Measurement
- Section 5 Government and Industry Perspectives
- Section 6 Conclusion
- Index
- Plate section
- References
9b - From inflammation to sickness and depression: the cytokine connection
from Section 2 - Cancer Symptom Mechanisms and Models: Clinical and Basic Science
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Credits and acknowledgements
- Section 1 Introduction
- Section 2 Cancer Symptom Mechanisms and Models: Clinical and Basic Science
- 4 The clinical science of cancer pain assessment and management
- 5 Pain: basic science
- 5a Mechanisms of disease-related pain in cancer: insights from the study of bone tumors
- 5b The physiology of neuropathic pain
- 6 Cognitive dysfunction: is chemobrain real?
- 7 Cognitive impairment: basic science
- 8 Depression in cancer: pathophysiology at the mind-body interface
- 9 Depressive illness: basic science
- 9a Animal models of depressive illness and sickness behavior
- 9b From inflammation to sickness and depression: the cytokine connection
- 10 Cancer-related fatigue: clinical science
- 11 Developing translational animal models of cancer-related fatigue
- 12 Cancer anorexia/weight loss syndrome: clinical science
- 13 Appetite loss/cachexia: basic science
- 14 Sleep and its disorders: clinical science
- 15 Sleep and its disorders: basic science
- 16 Proteins and symptoms
- 17 Genetic approaches to treating and preventing symptoms in patients with cancer
- 18 Functional imaging of symptoms
- 19 High-dose therapy and posttransplantation symptom burden: striking a balance
- Section 3 Clinical Perspectives In Symptom Management and Research
- Section 4 Symptom Measurement
- Section 5 Government and Industry Perspectives
- Section 6 Conclusion
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
The possibility that inflammation plays a major role in the symptoms of sickness and depression experienced by cancer patients was initially proposed by a group of investigators led by Charles Cleeland, one of the editors of this book. The authors' reasoning was based on analogies. Laboratory animals injected with proinflammatory cytokines, or with cytokine inducers such as lipopolysaccharide, develop striking signs of sickness characterized by pain, wasting, cognitive impairment, anxiety, and fatigue. The same symptoms are observed in many patients with cancer and are exacerbated during inflammation-inducing cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In addition, cancer patients subjected to long-term immunotherapy with interferon (IFN)-α and/or interleukin (IL)-2 for the treatment of metastatic kidney cancer or metastatic melanoma rapidly develop symptoms of sickness that can culminate in true depressive disorders. Since Cleeland's seminal paper was published, many studies have confirmed that nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, even in long-term cancer survivors, are associated with inflammatory biomarkers and cannot be explained away solely as psychological difficulties related to coping with a diagnosis of cancer or living with the disease. A recent review paper confirmed the plausibility of the relationship between inflammation and the behavioral comorbidities experienced by patients with cancer and pointed to the pivotal role of neuroendocrine-immune mechanisms in this relationship.
The objective of this chapter is to discuss the neuroimmune mechanisms that are likely to be responsible for the development of symptoms of sickness and depression in patients with cancer.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cancer Symptom ScienceMeasurement, Mechanisms, and Management, pp. 95 - 109Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010