Relationship between immune-related markers and clinicopathological features and prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer

Objective To analyze the relationship between immune-related markers ［A proliferation-inducing ligand/tumor necrosis factor superfamily 13(APRIL/TNFSF13), B lymphocyte activating factor (BAFF) and lymphocyte activating gene 3 (LAG-3)］ and clinicopathological features as well as prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer. Methods A retrospective study was conducted on 120 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer in the Affiliated Huai'an Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from March 2020 to March 2021. Streptavidin-perosidase (SP) was used to detect the expressions of APRIL/TNFSF13, BAFF and LAG-3 in cancer tissues and adjacent tissue specimens obtained by surgeries. Follow-up for 3 months after operation, the expressions of APRIL/TNFSF13, BAFF and LAG-3 in patients with different clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were compared, and the correlation between the above three indexes and clinicopathological characteristics as well as prognosis was analyzed. Results The positive expression rates of APRIL/TNFSF13 (90.83% vs 17.50%, χ2=129.969, P＜0.01), BAFF (85.83% vs 12.50%, χ2=147.590, P＜0.01) and LAG-3 (84.17% vs 14.17%, χ2=117.633, P＜0.01) in colorectal cancer tissues were higher than those in adjacent tissues. There were statistically significant differences in the positive expression rates of APRIL/TNFSF13, BAFF and LAG-3 in colorectal cancer patients with different pathological stages, differentiation degrees, lymph node metastasis, and prognosis (P＜0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that the positive expressions of APRIL/TNFSF13, BAFF and LAG-3 were independently correlated with lymph node metastasis, pathological stage, differentiation degree and prognosis in colorectal cancer patients (P＜0.05). Conclusion The immune-related markers APRIL/TNFSF13, BAFF and LAG-3 are highly expressed in the tumor tissues of colorectal cancer patients, and their positive expression can be the risk factors for lymph node metastasis, high pathological stage, low differentiation and poor prognosis.