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Background and Aim: Evidence has emerged that a pretreatment immune profile in rectal cancer is associated with response to chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and recurrence after CRT. However, few studies have evaluated the immune profile differences after CRT regarding recurrence and nonrecurrence. Methods: We included patients with advanced rectal cancer treated with CRT and surgery with recurrence within 1 year in a recurrence group. After sex and age matching with the recurrence group, patients with no recurrence for 3 years after CRT were included in a nonrecurrence group. We extracted the immune profile, including CD3 and CD8, from the surgical specimen after CRT using multispectral fluorescence immunohistochemistry and compared the two groups. Results: The immune profiles of 65 patients with rectal cancer were assessed; 30 were included in the recurrence group and 35 were included in the nonrecurrence group. CD3+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte densities were significantly higher in the nonrecurrence group than in the recurrence group (CD3+; P < 0.001, CD8+; P = 0.003) in the primary tumor. Consistent results were found in epithelial and stromal cells. Compared with the recurrence group, the distinct profiles of co‐expressed immune markers in the nonrecurrence group were revealed (CD3+CD8+, P = 0.001; CD3+CD8+PD‐L1−, P = 0.001; CD3+CD8+ FOXP3− PD‐L1−, P = 0.001). Conclusions: Vigorous CD3+ and CD8+ T cell priming post‐CRT was prominent in the nonrecurrence group compared with that of the recurrence group. This finding suggests that differences in immune profiles may have clinical significance even after CRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim It is generally assumed that gastric cancer (GC) in young patients has different clinicopathologic characteristics than that of elderly patients. Although recurrence is an important factor in determining prognosis, traditional clinicopathological factors are sometimes inadequate for predicting recurrence in individuals. Therefore, we aimed to identify miRNAs with the potential to predict recurrence in young patients. Methods Young patients (age <40 years) undergoing gastrectomy for potentially curable GC (stage III) at Asan Medical Center participated in this study. A total of 50 GC patients with ( n = 28) and without ( n = 22) GC recurrence were selected for analysis. miRNA microarrays were analyzed to screen tissue samples ( n = 7), and we validated the selected miRNAs by quantitative PCR in validation samples ( n = 43). Results Two miRNAs (hsa-miR-21-5p and hsa-miR-451a) identified in the microarray analysis were evaluated in the validation samples. Among the validation samples containing intratumoral stroma ≥ 70 ( n = 35), hsa-miR-21-5p was more highly expressed in the recurrence group than in the nonrecurrence group (fold change 1.82, P = 0.03). In the validation samples with intratumoral stroma ≥ 70, the ΔCt of hsa-miR-21-5p, which was >3.35, had a sensitivity and specificity of 86.7% and 65.5%, respectively, for predicting recurrence, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.723. Conclusions miR-21-5p may be useful as a predictor of recurrence in young GC patients whose tumors contain a high proportion of intratumoral stroma. The combination of this miRNA with conventional clinicopathological factors should allow patient prognoses to be more accurately predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]