09 The intra-tumor stroma microenvironment as a strong prognosticator for colon cancer

Abstract

tumour surgical resection. Venous blood was dispensed into a tube for serum (Becton Dickinson Hemogard Vacutainer Systems, Plymouth, UK). Serum blood samples were centrifuged at 1,500g for 10 minutes and then aliquoted and frozen at −80 oC. Tryptase levels were measured using the UniCAP Tryptase Fluoroenzymeimmunoassay (Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden). Results: Mean ± s.d. tryptase level pre-tumour surgical resection was 6.38±4.49 mg/L, and mean ± s.d. tryptase level post tumour surgical resection was 5.11±3.81 mg/L. A statistically significant difference between pre-tumour surgical resection and post-tumour surgical resection tryptase level concentrations was found: p = 0.000 by t-test. No correlation among tryptase levels and other important clinical-pathological features of patients were found. Conclusion: This is the first report that analyzes the possible significance of serum tryptase levels changes in CRC patients who underwent radical surgical resection. Tryptase is one of the most powerful angiogenic mediators released by mast cells and it may be angiogenic via several mechanisms. On the other hand CRC is a well established angiogenesis dependent tumour. Our results demonstrated higher serum tryptase levels CRC patients suggesting the release of tryptase from CRC tissue. As expected, after radical surgical resection, serum tryptase levels had decreased. We suggest that tryptase may play a role as a new circulating biomarker of response to radical surgery in CRC patients.