Surprisingly, while live cancer cells when co-cultivated with NIH3T3 cells in vitro did not release cfCh (Figures 1a and b), and consequently did not activate DDR and inflammation in the bystander cells (Figures 6b, c and 8b, c), when injected intravenously into mice, live cancer cells underwent active cell death and released cfCh into bystander cells of distant target organs to induce γH2AX and NFκB, IL-6, IFNγ and TNFα (Figure 6d, 8d–h; Supplementary Figures 9). Here, NFKB1 is linked to cancer.