Tumor immune microenvironment and response of immunotherapy in patients with colorectal cancer

Aim: Biomarkers, such as PD-L1, have enabled significant progress in predicting the efficacy of immunosuppressants. However, they may not accurately predict the benefit degree from immunotherapy. Therefore, we associated PD-L1 with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes for accurate guidance in immunotherapy. Methods: The expressions of diverse proteins in 68 patients with positive PD-L1 expression were detected. The response to immunotherapy and its clinical results were observed and analyzed. Results: The overall response rate of immunotherapy differed significantly among groups (75%; 57.58%; 10%; and 0), as did the 3-year overall survival rates (72.73%, 54.84%, 11.11%, and 0). Conclusion: We identified four immune subtypes of colorectal cancer with different tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and constructed a highly operable method for immunotyping to predict the immunotherapy efficacy.