ABSTRACT
The concept that cancer may be an aberrant form of the physiological process of inflammation and wound repair was put forth by T. Hunter in 1694. The importance of products of inflammatory cells in regulating tumor cell growth comes primarily in a parallel manner from studies of both tumor immunology and cancer carcinogenesis. Studies of tumor immunologists have long suggested that immune cells may paradoxically stimulate tumor cell growth. Based on these data, the concept of immunostimulation of neoplastic growth was cogently put forth by Prehn in 1977. The importance of MO in repair of injuries has long been known. In 1977, S. J. Leibovich and A. Ross demonstrated that ablation of macrophages by systemic hydrocortisone combined with topical antimacrophage serum slowed the wound healing response. The role of macrophages in stimulating or inhibiting tumor cell growth has been extensively documented in vitro and in vivo.
