Chemical Mechanism of Mutation During Inflammation-Induced Carcinogenesis

t is a central theme of this Program Project that inflammation causes cancer. We strive to understand how it causes cancer, particularly cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, because understanding the chemical and molecular steps underlying the mechanism of neoplastic transformation provides valuable insight into the biology of end stage cancers. Moreover, this mechanistic understanding identifies steps at which intervention in terms of therapy or prevention strategies is likely to reduce disease burden in humans. Project 2 integrates with Project 1, which identifies a population of chemical mediators that in aggregate represent the drivers of the genetic changes many researchers believe underpin the conversion of normal cells into cancer cells. These

Public Health Relevance Statement: This Project utilizes unique chemical and genetic tools to uncover the type, amount and genetic requirements for the inflammation-induced local mutations and DNA strand breaks that presumably initiate and help drive the process of carcinogenesis.