Cambridge – Inflammation and cancer are an almost inseparable pair, as the presence of tumor cells triggers the inflammatory response that tries to inhibit their growth, while inflammations feed and enhance the aggressiveness of the tumor and the spread of metastases. Professor Licio Collavin, from the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Trieste, and his research group at the National Laboratory CIB – Area Science Park in Trieste recently revealed on the pages of the prestigious international scientific journal Molecular Cell one of the key factors in this dangerous alliance: the p53 protein, well known to scientists because it is one of those most frequently mutated in tumors (it is in almost half of all cases of cancer). (9Colonne)