COVID-19 vs. Cancer Immunosurveillance: A Game of Thrones within an Inflamed Microenviroment

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Cancer immunosurveillance exists as a mechanism of efficient eradication of tumor establishment and progression. On the flip side, chronic inflammation functions as an ultimate background that may favor cancer development and advancement. Severe infection by the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 virus often causes a multifaceted inflammation with acute and chronic characteristics that may affect several organs. The current review discusses the hypothesis of a potential interplay between the mechanisms of cancer immunosurveillance and the COVID-19-sustained inflammation, as well as the putative consequences that this cross-talk may have in oncogenesis and tumor progression. ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic accounts for more than 500 million confirmed infections and over 6 million deaths worldwide in the last 2 years. SARS-CoV-2 causes a highly complex form of inflammation that affects the human organism both acutely and chronically. In the same line, cancer as an inflammation-induced and immune-editing disease appears to cross-react with immune system at different levels including early interactions during carcinogenesis and later cross-talks within the tumor microenvironment. With all that in mind, a reasonable question one might address is whether the SARS-CoV-2 infection and the derived “long lasting inflammatory status” that is frequently observed in patients, might affect the cancer immunosurveillance mechanisms and consequently their risk of developing cancer, as well as the tumor and immune cell behaviors within the inflamed microenvironment. On this context, this review intends to outline and discuss the existing knowledge on SARS-CoV-2-mediated immunomodulation under the prism of changes that might be able to interfere with cancer cell immunoescape and the overall tumor progression and response to conventional therapeutics. Our goal is to highlight a potential interplay between the COVID-19 immunopathology and cancer immune-microenvironment that may pave the way for thorough investigation in the future.