REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1587950
This article is part of the Research TopicColorectal Cancer Immunotherapy and Immune MechanismsView all 7 articles
The interplay between tumor cells and immune cells of the Colorectal cancer Tumor Microenvironment: Wnt/β-catenin pathway involvement
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
- 2Research Institute for Medical Research, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
- 3University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- 4The University of Jordan, Aljubeiha, Amman, Jordan
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is currently ranked as the third most frequent human cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Macrophages and immune cell subsets infiltrate the tumor microenvironment and modulate several cellular events and metabolic processes in CRC. Therefore, CRC (TME)-infiltrating macrophages are thought to play a significant role in CRC progression, and could hence be potential therapeutic targets in CRC. Several lines of evidence suggest that the Wingless/Integrated (WNTs) family of signaling proteins plays a crucial role in CRC development and progression. Numerous studies have established that Wnt pathway signaling is involved in CRC-TME interaction; CRC-immune cell interaction in particular. Mounting experimental evidence point to the possibility that the TME in CRC can reciprocally modulate the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Lastly, several studies have elaborated on the effect of drugs that disrupt the Wnt/β-catenin pathway as means of hindering CRC growth and progression. In this review, we discuss the multifaceted role of Wnt/β-catenin pathway in CRC and its TME as well as CRC-TME interactions. We also elaborate on the potential therapeutic utility of Wnt/β-catenin pathwayrelated targets in CRC.
Keywords: CRC, Wnt pathway, β-catenin, Tumor Microenvironment, Macrophages
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 06 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Janeeh, Bajbouj, Abu-Gharbieh and Hamad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Eman Abu-Gharbieh, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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