Increased Fusobacterium tumoural abundance affects immunogenicity in mucinous colorectal cancer and may be associated with improved clinical outcome

The objectives of this study were to assess the association ofFusobacterium abundance with immune cell composition and prognosis in mucinous CRC. Our study included two independent colorectal cancer patient cohorts, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort, and a cohort of rectal cancers from the Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre (BRCC). Multiplexed immunofluorescence staining of a tumour microarray (TMA) from the BRCC cohort was undertaken using Cell DIVE technology. Our cohorts included 87 cases (13.3%) of mucinous and 565 cases (86.7%) of non-mucinous CRC. Mucinous CRC in the TCGA dataset was associated with an increased proportion of CD8  + lymphocytes (p = 0.018), regulatory T-cells (p = 0.001) and M2 macrophages (p = 0.001). In the BRCC cohort, mucinous RC was associated with enhanced CD8 + lymphocyte (p = 0.022), regulatory T-cell (p = 0.047), and B-cell (p = 0.025) counts. HighFusobacterium abundance was associated with an increased proportion of CD4  + lymphocytes (p = 0.031) and M1 macrophages (p = 0.006), whilst M2 macrophages (p = 0.043) were under-represented in this cohort. Patients with increasedFusobacterium relative abundance in our mucinous CRC TCGA cohort tended to have better clinical outcomes (DSS: likelihood ratiop = 0.04, logrankp = 0.052).Fusobacterium abundance may be associated with improved outcomes in mucinous CRC, possibly due to a modulatory effect on the host immune response.Key messages• Increase...
Source: Journal of Molecular Medicine - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research