ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1590219
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Insights of Multi-Omics into the Microenvironment After Tumor Metastasis: A Paradigm Shift in Molecular Targeting Modeling and Immunotherapy for Advanced Cancer PatientsView all 5 articles
Radiation therapy for intestinal barrier damage and repair process -Differences in salivary metabolites and non-invasive monitoring of intestinal barrier function
Provisionally accepted
Jingjing Zhang1
Kun Wang2Yanyu Qiao1Mengjie Zhang3Yunqing Chen1Yulong Tian2Xuelong Jiao2
Xiaojie Tan2Haitao Jiang2*Feng Hou1*- 1Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
- 2Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
- 3Department of Gynaecology, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is still one of the most common malignant tumors, with gradual increase in its annual morbidity and mortality. But most cases are diagnosed in the late stage. For stage II-III cancer, clinical guidelines recommend surgery following neoadjuvant radiation therapy at ≥6 weeks after the last radiotherapy is completed. However, radiotherapy may impair intestinal mucosal barrier function, especially the biological and immune barriers, accompanied by perioperative complications. This study was conducted to investigate the changes, repair patterns, and potential mechanisms in patients after radiotherapy. This study detected inflammatory factors in postoperative intestinal mucosal tissue and serum, as well as metabolites in saliva samples, and collected hematoxylin-eosin (HE)-stained pathological images in CRC patients who had received and did not receive radiotherapy. The results showed that after radiotherapy, there were significantly impaired intestinal mucosal tissue structure; obviously elevated inflammatory factors in intestinal mucosal tissue and blood; as well as upregulation/downregulation of metabolites in saliva samples. In conclusion, findings in this study may provide potential reference for predicting the recovery of intestinal mucosa and selecting the optimal timing for surgery after radiotherapy. In addition, this study will benefit the understanding and reduction of perioperative complications caused by intestinal barrier damage.
Keywords: rectal cancer, Radiotherapy, Damage and repair, Intestinal Mucosal Barrier, Biological barrier, Immune barrier, salivary metabolites
Received: 09 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Qiao, Zhang, Chen, Tian, Jiao, Tan, Jiang and Hou. 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:
Haitao Jiang, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
Feng Hou, Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
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