High Tumor- T cell distance differentiates metastatic colon cancers

In our study led by Matthijs Baars and Emre kucukkose, in close collaboration with the team of Onno Kranenburg and fantastic clinical collaborators from the Cancer center, we set out to uncover risk factors for colon cancer metastasis. We explored the tumor immune microenvironment of primary tumors from patients with MSI-colon cancers and compared tumors that either did or did not metastasize. We found that while cytotoxic T cells are present in simllar numbers, they locate completely different: In metastatic tumors the T cells localized far away from the tumor within the stromal region and showed no signs of activation, while in the non-metastatic tumors the T cells directly localized with the tumor cells. Of note, with funding from the Sacha Swarttouw-Hijmans foundation we are currently explanding the numbers of samples t to explore whether we can use this as a biomarker to predict risk of metastatsis with Dr. Jeanine Roodhart and Dr. Sjoerd Ellias. Read more in our published story at British Journal of Cancer