Study of the inflammatory state in tumor tissue of colorectal cancer patients depending on the stage

Abstract

[eng] Colorectal cancer is the third-most common cancer worldwide and 80% of cases have an environmental origin (occidental lifestyle, inflammatory bowel diseases). The solid tumors are formed by neoplastic and stromal cells but also by a different type of immune cells, forming the tumor microenvironment. Tumor microenvironment has an associated inflammation that participates in tumor growth, angiogenesis, epithelial – mesenchymal transition and metastasis. Changes in inflammation and hypoxia levels in the tumor tissue in patients affected of colorectal cancer were studied, according to tumor stage, by the determination of protein expression levels by western blot of proteins related to inflammation and hypoxia, such as pJAK2, JAK2, pSTAT3, STAT3 (proinflammatory pathway and promote cell proliferation), NF-κB, pIκB and IκB (pro-inflammatory proteins), COX2 (pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic protein) and PPARγ (anti-inflammatory protein). Our results indicated a decrease of inflammation probably due to an increase of hypoxia in early colorectal cancer and the reversion of this situation, increase of inflammation probably due to a decrease of hypoxia, in advanced colorectal cancer. These results could indicate the importance of these situations in the evaluation of colorectal cancer development and progression.