Regulation of Cytokines in Cancer Pain

Copyright © 2016 Xue-Jun Song et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Cancer pain possesses a major challenge in clinical treatment , yet its underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Recent advances in understanding the molecular pathways mediating the inflammatory processes accompanied with cancer and cancer pain suggest the importance of proinflammatory cytokines. Further studies in this area will facilitate the discovery and validation of potential therapeutic targets for cancer pain. In this special issue, we present original research articles and clinical studies, as well as review articles, on the role of various cytokines and their regulation in the development and maintenance of cancer pain. This special issue features two review articles. In the paper entitled " Treatment of Cancer Pain by Targeting Cytokines, " I. Vendrell et al. presented a comprehensive overview of the literature on the importance of cytokines in cancer pain and discussed the existing strategies to control the release of cytokines that have an impact on cancer pain. C. Panis and W. R. Pavanelli in " Cytokines as Mediators of Pain-Related Process in Breast Cancer " analyzed the major proinflamma-tory cytokines produced in breast cancer and discussed the evidences from current research regarding their role in the generation of pain-related clinical features. The research article by G. Zhu et al. entitled " Radio-therapy Suppresses Bone Cancer Pain through Inhibiting Activation of cAMP Signaling in Rat Dorsal Root Ganglion and Spinal Cord " investigated the mechanisms of a major clinical treatment for bone cancer pain. They reported that, in a rat tumor cell implantation model, X-ray radiation reduced IL-1í µí»½ and TNF-í µí»¼ concentrations and suppressed bone cancer pain by inhibiting the activation of cAMP-PKA signaling pathway in DRG and the spinal cord. In the paper " Levo-Tetrahydropalmatine Attenuates Bone Cancer Pain by Inhibiting Microglial Cells Activation, " M. Zhang et al. examined the analgesic roles of L-THP in rats with bone cancer pain. This study described a possible clinical utility of L-THP administration in the treatment of bone cancer pain. The analgesic effects of L-THP on cancer pain may result from the inhibition of microglial cells activation and proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-í µí»¼ and IL-18) production. S. Zhu et al. described the potential role of the spinal sigma-1 receptor in the development of bone …