American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Dec 2020
ReviewSepsis and Cancer, An Interplay of Friends and Foes.
Sepsis and cancer share a number of pathophysiological features, and both result from the inability of the host's immune system to cope with the initial insult (tissue invasion by pathogens and malignant cell transformation, respectively). The common coexistence of both disorders and the profound related alterations in immune homeostasis raise the question of their mutual impact on each other's course. This translational review aims to discuss the interactions between cancer and sepsis supported by clinical data and the translation to experimental models. ⋯ In sequential sepsis-then-cancer models, postseptic mice exhibited accelerated tumor growth. When using reverse cancer-then-sepsis models, bacterial sepsis applied to mice with cancer conversely resulted in inhibition or even regression of tumor growth. Experimental models thus highlight dual effects of sepsis on tumor growth, mostly depending on the sequence of insults, and allow deciphering the immune mechanisms and their relation with microorganisms.