Soluble levels of sCD40L and s4‐1BB are associated with a poor prognosis in elderly patients with colorectal cancer

Soluble levels of sCD40L and s4‐1BB are associated with a poor prognosis in elderly patients with colorectal cancer:

Abstract

Background and Objectives

The prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) has improved in the last decades, however, a lower overall survival persists in the elderly. The understanding of immunity changes in the elderly with CRC will allow the emergence of new treatments with higher response rates. 4‐1BB and CD40L, an immune checkpoint stimulator, play an important role in T‐cell responses and platelets. Our aim was to characterize the soluble levels of CD40L and 4‐1BB in CRC elderly patients.

Methods

A cross‐sectional study was performed in 41 patients with CRC and 35 healthy elderly controls. Patients with CRC were divided into three groups according to staging: 13 patients with advanced tumor restricted to the organ (stages II); 16 patients with lymph node metastasis (stage III); and 12 patients with distant metastasis (stage IV).

Results

There were higher levels of soluble s4‐1BB and sCD40L in CRC elderly stage II patients when compared with healthy controls (P = .0009 and P < .0001, respectively), stage III patients (P = .008 and P < .0001, respectively) and stage IV patients (P = .007 and P < .0001, respectively).

Conclusions

We concluded that sCD40L and s4‐1BB molecules may be prognostic biomarkers, since the reduction in plasma levels of these molecules was associated with disease progression.