The predictive value and the correlation of peripheral absolute monocyte count, tumor-associated macrophage and microvessel density in patients with colon cancer

Abstract

The tumor microenvironment plays a pivotal role in cancer progression. The purpose of the present study was designed to evaluate the predictive value of peripheral absolute monocyte count, tumor-associated macrophage, microvessel density, and to clarify the correlation between them in patients with colon cancer.A series of 216 patients with colon cancer were enrolled in this study. The peripheral absolute monocyte count was obtained from preoperative routine blood test. Tumor-associated macrophage and microvessel density were assessed on tissue microarray by immunohistochemistry.The one, three, five-year overall survival rate for the low absolute monocyte count group was 98.4%, 91.1%, 87.1%, respectively; and for the high absolute monocyte count group was 94.6%, 83.7%, 77.2%, respectively (P = .046). The one, three, five-year progression-free survival rate for the low absolute monocyte count group was 94.4%, 87.1%, 85.5%, respectively; and for the high absolute monocyte count group was 90.2%, 75.0%, 73.9%, respectively (P = .024). Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that there was a strong association between peripheral monocyte count and clinical outcome. The correlation between peripheral absolute monocyte count, tumor-associated macrophage, and microvessel density were not observed.The peripheral absolute monocyte count was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and progression-free survival in colon cancer. The high absolute monocyte count was significantly associated with poor outcome.

The local inflammatory response in colorectal cancer – Type, location or density? A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…CD68 is a generic macrophage marker, whereas CD163 and CD206 are believed to be markers more specific to M2 tumour associated macrophages that have been associated with a worse outcome [171]. There were twenty-two studies overall in colon or colorectal cancer although one study had an overlapping population [172], leaving twenty-one independent studies comprising 4879 patients [60,83,85,87,89,91,96,111,122,123,168,171,[173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181]. Of these, eleven studies (2038 patients) found that higher infiltration of macrophages were associated with a better prognosis [60,83,87,96,122,[175][176][177][178]180,181], compared with five studies (1965 patients) finding a worse prognosis [85,168,171,173,179].…”

“…Sixteen independent studies (3528 patients) assessed CD68 in colorectal cancer: of which ten (1998 patients) were associated with an improved outcome [60,83,87,96,122,175,177,178,180,181], one (654 patients) was associated with a worse outcome [85] and five (876 patients) found no difference [89,91,111,123,174]. The study that found a negative impact of CD68 on survival measured it in the IE compartment and ST compartment, finding that the presence of CD68 in the IE compartment impacted negatively on survival, whereas CD68 in the ST compartment made no difference to survival [85].…”

“…However, another three studies also measured CD68 in the IE compartment: of which two studies (187 patients) found no difference to survival [87,89]; while one (201 patients) found it to be associated with improved survival [178]. Twelve studies in total assessed intratumoural CD68 [60,83,85,87,89,91,96,111,122,174,175,177,178], of which five (796 patients) found it to be associated with better survival [60,96,122,175,178], whereas one found it to be associated with worse survival as already mentioned [85]. Eight studies assessed CD68 at the invasive margin: of which five found it to be associated with better survival [83,87,177,180,181], compared with 3 that identified no association [89,111,123].…”

“…Five studies used an electronic method of assessment [60,83,85,91,111], of which two found CD68 to be associated with better survival [60,83] and one with worse survival [85]. Eleven studies used a manual assessment method [87,89,96,122,123,174,175,177,178,180,181], of which only three found no association with better survival [89,91,123]. Four studies assessed the presence of MSI: of which one found CD68 to be associated with better survival, independent of MSI [181]; one found that CD68 was not independent of MSI [83]; while two did not include MSI in multivariate analysis [85,178].…”

Factors associated with Trifluridine/Tipiracil (TAS-102) effectiveness in patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer: real-life data from the Czech Republic.

“…Some of these factors are probably associated not only with the outcomes of TAS-102 therapy but with CRC prognosis in general. For example, lower monocyte count is associated with better prognosis of localized CRC and metastatic disease [8][9][10][11] and was also con rmed as positive prognostic factor for TAS-102 in a study published by Kwakman and collaborators [7]. Similarly, elevated CRP levels are associated with poor prognosis of non-metastatic and metastatic CRC [12][13][14][15][16].…”