Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Via Manzoni 56, 20089, Rozzano, Milan, Italy.
Laboratory of Molecular Gastroenterology, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano, Milan, Italy.
Inflamm Res. 2018 May;67(5):375-389. doi: 10.1007/s00011-017-1128-1. Epub 2018 Jan 10.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) still represents the third most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in men and women worldwide. CRC is acknowledged as a heterogeneous disease that develops through a multi-step sequence of events driven by clonal selections; this observation is sustained by the fact that histologically similar tumors may have completely different outcomes, including a varied response to therapy.
In "early" and "intermediate" stage of CRC (stages II and III, respectively) there is a compelling need for new biomarkers fit to assess the metastatic potential of their disease, selecting patients with aggressive disease that might benefit from adjuvant and targeted therapies. Therefore, we review the actual notions on immune response in colorectal cancer and their implications for biomarker development.
The recognition of the key role of immune cells in human cancer progression has recently drawn attention on the tumor immune microenvironment, as a source of new indicators of tumor outcome and response to therapy. Thus, beside consolidated histopathological biomarkers, immune endpoints are now emerging as potential biomarkers.
The introduction of immune signatures and cellular and molecular components of the immune system as biomarkers is particularly important considering the increasing use of immune-based cancer therapies as therapeutic strategies for cancer patients.
结直肠癌（CRC）仍然是全球男性和女性中第三大常见的癌症类型。CRC 被认为是一种异质性疾病，通过克隆选择驱动的多步事件序列发展；这一观察结果得到了一个事实的支持，即组织学上相似的肿瘤可能具有完全不同的结局，包括对治疗的不同反应。
在 CRC 的“早期”和“中期”阶段（分别为 II 期和 III 期），迫切需要新的生物标志物来评估其疾病的转移潜力，选择具有侵袭性疾病的患者，这些患者可能受益于辅助和靶向治疗。因此，我们回顾了免疫反应在结直肠癌中的作用及其对生物标志物开发的影响。
最近，人们认识到免疫细胞在人类癌症进展中的关键作用，这引起了人们对肿瘤免疫微环境的关注，将其作为肿瘤结局和对治疗反应的新指标的来源。因此，除了巩固的组织病理学生物标志物外，免疫终点现在也作为潜在的生物标志物出现。
鉴于免疫为基础的癌症治疗作为癌症患者的治疗策略越来越多地被采用，因此引入免疫特征以及免疫系统的细胞和分子成分作为生物标志物尤为重要。
