Uncontrolled inflammation is a salient factor in multiple chronic inflammatory diseases and cancers. In this review, we provided an in-depth analysis of the relationships and distinctions between uncontrolled inflammation, fibrosis and cancers, while emphasizing the challenges and opportunities of developing novel therapies for the treatment and/or management of these diseases. We described how drug delivery systems, combination therapy and the integration of tissue-targeted and/or pathways selective strategies could overcome the challenges of current agents for managing and/or treating chronic inflammatory diseases and cancers. We also recognized the value of the re-evaluation of the disease-specific roles of multiple pathways implicated in the pathophysiology of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancers-as well as the application of data from single-cell RNA sequencing in the success of future drug discovery endeavors.
Keywords: COX/LOX pathway; HDACI; NF-κB pathway; STAT3 pathway; TGF-β pathway; cancer; combinational treatment; cystic fibrosis; epigenetic regulation; fibrosis; hepatocellular carcinoma; hepatocirrhosis; idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis; immunotherapy; interstitial lung disease; nanoparticle delivery; prodrug; structure–activity relationship study; tissue inflammation; tissue targeting.