Mechanisms of inflammatory Card9 signaling in intestinal carcinogenesis

  

Project Summary


High-grade inflammation in chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and smoldering tumor-elicited inflammation are key drivers of colorectal cancer, but the mechanisms that link inflammatory signaling to intestinal carcinogenesis are insufficiently understood. Since polymorphisms in Card9 are associated with human IBD, we have studied the function of Card9 in colitis-associated cancer (CAC). Deficiency for Card9 amongst others results in impaired tumor development and defective tumor cell-intrinsic STAT3 activation. Here, we want to define the mechanism of Card9 signaling during CAC and investigate the functions and consequences of these pathways for tumor-elicited inflammation in oncogene-driven colon cancer.