Figure 2.

Hypothesized schematic of how damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) contribute to the treatment and progression of cancer and cardiotoxicity. Due to the paradoxical contribution of DAMPs to cancer progression in the literature, we believe two key thresholds of DAMP expression exist. The first is the ‘anti-cancer’ threshold and this is where controlled amounts of DAMPs stimulate the immune system to mount an effective defense against the growing and potentially pathogenic tumor. This explains the benefits of immunogenic cell death (ICD) to cancer remission. The second threshold is the one of pathogenicity and this is when DAMP expression becomes so excessive and chronic that uncontrolled inflammation ensues, and this contributes to the progression of cancer, resistance to anti-cancer treatments, and cardiovascular disease.

DAMPs, damage-associated molecular patterns.