Although IL-1β has a protumourigenic effect [Fig 5C in this study; and (Apte & Voronov, 2008)], inflammasome and IL-1β-mediated antitumour activity have been reported recently by two other studies in gene-deficient mice, which described the effect of the NLRP3 and IL-1β produced by hematopoietic cells against cancer (Allen et al, 2010; Ghiringhelli et al, 2009). Here, NLRP3 is linked to cancer.