NLRP3 and neoplasm: In AP, it promotes NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated pyroptosis and inflammation (Gao et al., 2021), whereas in PC, circERC1 inhibits pyroptosis—a pro-inflammatory cell death process—by disrupting the hnRNPA1-PKM2-NLRP3 axis, thereby promoting tumor cell survival and drug resistance (Gu et al., 2022).