Intestinal carcinogenesis: IKK can go all the way.

Chronic inflammation has long been suspected to support tumorigenesis in a variety of cancers. The IκB kinase (IKK)/NF-κB pathway is the critical signal transduction pathway regulating inflammation, and loss-of-function studies have demonstrated its involvement in tumorigenesis. In this issue of the JCI, Vlantis et al. present evidence that persistent genetic activation of IKK/NF-κB signaling in intestinal epithelial cells not only accelerates tumorigenesis in models of both carcinogen- and mutation-induced colorectal cancer, but also is sufficient to induce intestinal tumors.