Most people hear “inflammation” and think soreness, stress, or being “run down.” But in oncology, chronic low-grade inflammation is one of the earliest biological shifts we see years before a cancer diagnosis. And here’s the part most people never learn: Your annual labs rarely check the markers that actually matter. When I’m evaluating inflammation tied to cancer risk and early disease, this is the blood work I pay attention to: • hs-CRP — One of the strongest indicators of chronic, metabolic i