Wound Infections and Healing: are they contributing factors for carcinogenesis?

Tissue damage caused by a diverse array of insults such as wounding, trauma, infections and UV exposure are usually well-managed by the protective immune system.¹ It has been reported that overactivation of tissue repair systems may lead to malignancy if protective apoptotic processes do not take place following wound repair.^1,2 Recently, there has been significant interest in the role of infectious agents and associated inflammation in recurrent or non-healing wounds, and its probable role in the development of malignancies. Inflammation usually occurs during the wounding and healing process. Infectious agents have been recognised as risk factors for approximately 20% of cancers around the world.³ Acute or recurring tissue damage caused by mechanical and biochemical wounding may provide a favourable environment for the establishment of microbial or parasitic communities at the wound site. Recently, a liver fluke, Opisthorchis viverrini, which caused the recurrence of physical wounding in bile duct, has been accepted as an infectious agent responsible for bile-duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma).^4,5,6Significant supporting data on human microbial diversities in various sites of the body including the gut, mouth and skin have been catalogued throughout the human microbiome projects in order to explore the roles of these microbial communities in human health and disease states.^7,8,9,10,11 Much work needs to be conducted in this area to better understand the relationship of microbiome and their human hosts.