Are Immunological mechanisms involved in colon cancer and are they possible markers for biotherapy improvement?

This review focuses on our data on colon cancer patients. Our overall results lead us to believe that the suppressive effect of specific cytokines in colon cancer patients alters the functionality of TH1 and TH2 subsets of CD4+ T cells, with an expansion of TH2 cells and a malfunctioning of TH1 cells. This immunological disregulation appears to increase with stage progression suggesting a direct role in the mechanisms that allow the tumour to locate and expand within the host. It is also clear that in order to identify disease markers and generate an in vivo immune response that corrects the imbalance between TH1 and TH2 cells, we need to understand how tumour mechanisms cause this imbalance in the first place.