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Study of the composition of the inflammatory infiltrate in patients with colorectum cancer
Background
Colorectal cancer is a real public health problem, it ranks third among cancers in terms of frequency the world and second in terms of mortality. Several environmental and genetic factors participate in the development and progression of this multifactorial disease. It develops from a colorectal adenoma. During of the evolution of tumor cells, the environment is crucial for their survival, growth and progression. The tumor microenvironment has become a privileged target to study new approaches for the treatment of cancers. Therefore, it becomes crucial to study the various elements and their implications for the survival and development of the tumour.
Methods
This study involved 22 tissue samples from patients with colorectal cancer. We characterized the inflammatory infiltrate by analyzing the density according to an expression score of 4 essential components of the immune system (NK cells (CD56), T helper cells (CD4) and cytotoxic (CD8) and macrophages (CD68)) by immunohistochemistry.
Results
The analysis of clinicopathological characteristics showed that the average age was 56.5 years with extremes of 35 and 78 years. The age range includes between 51 and 60 years old is the most affected with a male predominance. Our results demonstrate that the sites most affected by the tumor are the sigmoid colon and rectum. 8/22 overexpress CD56, 10/22 overexpress CD4, 12/22 overexpress CD8 and 16/22 overexpress CD68.
Conclusions
Our work demonstrates that these 4 proteins are almost present in all extended cases with a slight predominance of CD68 and CD8 T cells illustrating the cytotoxic activity. For this reason, the simultaneous consideration of the criteria of the tumor, its histological profile and the characteristics of its microenvironment by pathologists could better identify the evolution of cancer, improve the discrimination of patients at risk of recurrence as well as the prediction of the response to conventional therapies for a better management of patients.
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Institut Pasteur de Tunis.
Disclosures
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
