IL1B and cancer: It has been speculated that the fatigue that occurs in cancer patients during treatment with paclitaxel chemotherapy may be caused by the increase in production of inflammatory cytokines, and several studies have reported that paclitaxel is capable of inducing the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, ICAM-1, NO synthetase, metaloproteinases and MCP-1 and causes the phosphorylation of MAP kinases [21].