The in situ local immune response tumour senescence and proliferation in colorectal cancer

摘要

Background: Immune cell infiltrates are important determinants of colorectal cancer (CRC) outcome. Their presence may be driven by tumour or host-specific factors. From previous studies in mice, senescence, a state of cell cycle arrest, may moderate tumour progression through upregulation of antitumour immune responses. The relationships between senescence and immune infiltrates have not previously been studied in humans. We explore whether a marker of senescence (p16^ink4a) in combination with low level expression of a proliferation marker (ki-67) relate to T cell infiltrates in CRC, and whether p16^ink4a, Ki-67 and immune infiltrates have similar prognostic value.