Advances in immunotyping of colorectal cancer

Front Immunol. 2023 Oct 9:14:1259461. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1259461. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Immunotherapy has transformed treatment for various types of malignancy. However, the benefit of immunotherapy is limited to a minority of patients with mismatch-repair-deficient (dMMR) and microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) (dMMR-MSI-H) colorectal cancer (CRC). Understanding the complexity and heterogeneity of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) and identifying immune-related CRC subtypes will improve antitumor immunotherapy. Here, we review the current status of immunotherapy and typing schemes for CRC. Immune subtypes have been identified based on TIME and prognostic gene signatures that can both partially explain clinical responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors and the prognosis of patients with CRC. Identifying immune subtypes will improve understanding of complex CRC tumor heterogeneity and refine current immunotherapeutic strategies.

Keywords: colorectal cancer; colorectal cancer subtypes; immune subtype; immunotherapy; tumor immune microenvironment.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Colorectal Neoplasms* / genetics
  • Colorectal Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy*
  • Microsatellite Instability
  • Prognosis
  • Tumor Microenvironment

Supplementary concepts

  • Turcot syndrome

Grants and funding

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by Medical and Health Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (No.2022KY1220) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. LQ23H160006).