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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.

Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1589533

High IL-10 mRNA levels in regional lymph nodes of colon cancer patients indicate poor prognosis

Provisionally accepted
Alaa  MohamedAlaa Mohamed1Hager  IsmailHager Ismail1Faten  ZahranFaten Zahran2Nabila  ZeinNabila Zein2Gudrun  LindmarkGudrun Lindmark3Marie-Louise  HammarströmMarie-Louise Hammarström1Sten  HammarströmSten Hammarström1Basel  SitohyBasel Sitohy1*
  • 1Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
  • 2Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Al Sharqia, Egypt
  • 3Lund University, Lund, Skane County, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

ABSTRACT Introduction The prognostic value of determining mRNA levels of two markers for regulatory T cells, IL-10 and FoxP3, in lymph nodes (LNs) and primary tumors of colon cancer (CC) patients receiving curative surgery was investigated. Methods mRNA levels were determined by real-time qRT-PCR in 370 LNs from 120 CC patients representing all four TNM stages, 66 primary tumors, 30 normal colon tissue samples and appropriate cell lines. Protein expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Patients were followed for 12 years. Results High levels of IL-10 mRNA in LNs were associated with poor prognosis with shorter mean survival time of 10 and 32 months (p=0.001 and p=0.004) at 5-and 12-year follow-up with hazard ratios of 12.4 and 6.3, respectively. No association between IL-10 level and prognosis was seen in the primary tumor. High levels of FoxP3 mRNA were associated with good prognosis, both in LNs and primary tumor. The difference in survival time was, however, small. Analysis of IL-10 mRNA in combination with LGR6 or CXCL17 mRNA in LNs generated patients with different risk of recurrence – low-, high-and very high risk. Immunohistochemistry identified IL-10 and FoxP3 positive cells located at the outer rim of tumor aggregates. Conclusion Level determinations of IL-10 mRNA in LNs are useful for prediction of outcome for CC patients after curative surgery. Low levels indicate that the patients do not require further treatment, while IL-10 in combination with LGR6 or CXCL17 can be used to identify patients at very high risk of recurrence.

Keywords: Colon Cancer, Regional lymph node, Foxp3, IL-10, regulatory T cell biomarker, prognosis, qRT-PCR, Immunohistochemistry

Received: 07 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Mohamed, Ismail, Zahran, Zein, Lindmark, Hammarström, Hammarström and Sitohy. 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: Basel Sitohy, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

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