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Systemic inflammation as a confounding factor in cancer biomarker discovery and validation

Cancer and inflammation are inextricably linked and cancer patients have local and systemic changes in inflammatory parameters. However, this crucial aspect of tumour biology is often overlooked in biomarker studies and needs to be urgently addressed.

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Figure 1: A network of local and systemic inflammation in cancer patients.

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Correspondence to Magdalena Chechlinska.

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Chechlinska, M., Kowalewska, M. & Nowak, R. Systemic inflammation as a confounding factor in cancer biomarker discovery and validation. Nat Rev Cancer 10, 2–3 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc2782

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