Bakkerus Lotte, Subtil Beatriz, Bontkes Hetty J, Gootjes Elske C, Reijm Martine, Vullings Manon, Verrijp Kiek, Bokhorst John-Melle, Woortman Carmen, Nagtegaal Iris D, Jonker Marianne A, van der Vliet Hans J, Verhoef Cornelis, Gorris Mark A J, de Vries I Jolanda M, de Gruijl Tanja D, Verheul Henk M W, Buffart Tineke E, Tauriello Daniele V F
Department of Medical Oncology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Medical BioSciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Oncoimmunology. 2024 Jun 10;13(1):2361971. doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2024.2361971. eCollection 2024.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) raises considerable clinical challenges, including a high mortality rate once the tumor spreads to distant sites. At this advanced stage, more accurate prediction of prognosis and treatment outcome is urgently needed. The role of cancer immunity in metastatic CRC (mCRC) is poorly understood. Here, we explore cellular immune cell status in patients with multi-organ mCRC. We analyzed T cell infiltration in primary tumor sections, surveyed the lymphocytic landscape of liver metastases, and assessed circulating mononuclear immune cells. Besides asking whether immune cells are associated with survival at this stage of the disease, we investigated correlations between the different tissue types; as this could indicate a dominant immune phenotype. Taken together, our analyses corroborate previous observations that higher levels of CD8+ T lymphocytes link to better survival outcomes. Our findings therefore extend evidence from earlier stages of CRC to indicate an important role for cancer immunity in disease control even after metastatic spreading to multiple organs. This finding may help to improve predicting outcome of patients with mCRC and suggests a future role for immunotherapeutic strategies.
结直肠癌（CRC）带来了诸多严峻的临床挑战，包括肿瘤一旦扩散到远处部位便会导致较高的死亡率。在这个晚期阶段，迫切需要更准确地预测预后和治疗结果。癌症免疫在转移性结直肠癌（mCRC）中的作用仍知之甚少。在此，我们探讨多器官mCRC患者的细胞免疫细胞状态。我们分析了原发性肿瘤切片中的T细胞浸润情况，研究了肝转移灶的淋巴细胞格局，并评估了循环单核免疫细胞。除了探究免疫细胞在此疾病阶段是否与生存相关外，我们还研究了不同组织类型之间的相关性；因为这可能表明存在一种占主导地位的免疫表型。综合来看，我们的分析证实了先前的观察结果，即较高水平的CD8 + T淋巴细胞与更好的生存结果相关。因此，我们的研究结果将CRC早期阶段的证据进行了拓展，表明即使在肿瘤转移至多个器官后，癌症免疫在疾病控制中也起着重要作用。这一发现可能有助于改善对mCRC患者预后的预测，并提示免疫治疗策略在未来的作用。
