Clinical significance of the combined measurement of serum B7-H1 and interleukin-10 in colorectal cancer patients

A Comparison of Cellular Immune Response and Immunological Biomarkers in Laparoscopic Surgery for Colorectal Cancer and Benign Disorders

BACKGROUND

Surgical trauma causes immune impairment, but it is largely unknown whether surgery for cancer and benign diseases instigate comparable levels of immune inhibition. Here, we compared the impact of laparoscopic surgery on immunological biomarkers in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and ventral hernia (VH).

METHODS

Natural Killer cell activity (NKA), leukocyte subsets, and soluble programmed death ligand 1 (sPD-L1) were measured in blood samples collected from CRC (n = 29) and VH (n = 9) patients preoperatively (PREOP) and on postoperative day (POD) 1, 3-6, 2 weeks and 3 months. NKA was evaluated by the NK Vue assay that uses the level of IFNγ as a surrogate marker of NKA. Normal NKA was defined as IFNγ > 250 pg/mL and low NKA was defined as IFNγ < 250 pg/mL.

RESULTS

The CRC cohort was classified into either PREOPLOW having preoperative low NKA or PREOPHIGH having preoperative normal NKA. The median NKA of the PREOPLOW subset was only in the normal range in the POD3 months sample, whereas median NKA of the PREOPHIGH subset and the VH cohort were only low in the POD1 sample. While PREOPLOW differed from VH in the PREOP-, POD1-, and POD3-6 samples (P =.0006, P = .0181, and P = .0021), NKA in PREOPHIGH and VH differed in the POD1 samples (P = .0226). There were no apparent differences in the distribution of leukocyte subsets in the perioperative period between the cohorts.

CONCLUSION

CRC patients with preoperative normal NKA and VH patients showed the same pattern of recovery in NKA, while the CRC subset with preoperative low NKA seemed to experience prolonged NK cell impairment. As low NKA is associated with recurrence, preoperative level of NKA may identify patients who will benefit from immune-enhancing therapy in the perioperative period.

Value of combined detection of serum tumor markers and M2-PK in colorectal cancer screening

BACKGROUND

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a highly malignant tumor with a significant increase in incidence and fatality rate year by year. Great attention has been paid to early screening for colorectal cancer. However, due to the non-specific clinical symptoms and complicated mechanisms of CRC, its early screening is not easy.

AIM

To explore the value of serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) combined with tumor M2 pyruvate kinase (M2-PK) in the screening of CRC.

METHODS

Eighty patients with CRC and 75 patients with benign colorectal diseases treated at our hospital from January 1, 2018 to October 10, 2020 were selected. In addition, 90 healthy controls were also included. All subjects were tested for serum CA19-9, CEA, and M2-PK. The differences in serum CA19-9, CEA, and M2-PK levels between the three groups were compared, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the performance of serum CA19-9, CEA, and M2-PK levels, either alone or in combination, in CRC screening.

RESULTS

The results of one-way variance showed that the differences in serum CEA, CA19-9, and TuM2-PK were statistically significant among the three groups (P < 0.05); the levels of serum CEA, CA19-9, and TuM2-PK in the CRC group were significantly higher than those of the other two groups (P < 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of serum CEA, CA19-9, and TuM2-PK for the diagnosis of CRC were 0.72, 0.69, and 0.85, respectively. The sensitivity of combined detection of CEA + CA19-9 + TuM2-PK was 90%, which was significantly higher than that of other combinations (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The detection of serum tumor markers combined with M2-PK can effectively improve the sensitivity of the diagnosis of CRC, and may play an important role in the early screening of this malignancy.

G-CSF and G-CSFR Induce a Pro-Tumorigenic Macrophage Phenotype to Promote Colon and Pancreas Tumor Growth

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in the gastrointestinal tumor microenvironment (TME) are known to polarize into populations exhibiting pro- or anti-tumoral activity in response to stimuli such as growth factors and cytokines. Our previous work has recognized granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) as a cytokine capable of influencing immune cells of the TME exhibiting pro-tumoral activity. Here, we aimed to focus on how G-CSF regulates TAM phenotype and function and the effects on gastrointestinal (GI) tumor progression. Thus, wildtype (WT) and G-CSFR^-/- macrophages were examined for cytokine production, gene expression, and transcription factor activity. Adoptive transfer of WT or G-CSFR^-/- macrophages into tumor-bearing mice was performed to study their influence in the progression of colon (MC38) and pancreatic (PK5L1940) tumor mouse models. Finally, the difference in cytotoxic potential between WT and G-CSFR^-/- macrophages was examined both in vitro and in vivo. Our results indicate that G-CSF promotes increased IL-10 production and decreased IL-12 production, which was reversed in G-CSFR^-/- macrophages for a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Furthermore, G-CSFR^-/- macrophages were characterized by higher levels of NOS2 expression and NO production, which led to greater tumor related cytotoxicity both in vitro and in vivo. Our results suggest that in the absence of G-CSFR, macrophage-related tumor cytotoxicity was amplified. These findings, along with our previous reports, pinpoint G-CSF /G-CSFR as a prominent target for possible clinical applications that aim to control the TME and the GI tumor progression.