Therapeutic Implications of the Immunoscore in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Beyond the TNM-staging system, biomarkers are needed to guide cancer treatments. We provide an overview of the Immunoscore, a standardized immune assay based on quantification by digital pathology of CD3+ and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells in tumor tissues. We discuss the usefulness of the Immunoscore (IS) and biopsies-adapted IS (IS(B)) biomarkers for prediction of clinical outcome and treatment response in colonic and rectal cancers. ABSTRACT: Four decades were needed to progress from the first demonstration of the independent prognostic value of lymphocytes infiltration in rectal cancers to the first recommendation from the international guidelines for the use of a standardized immune assay, namely the “Immunoscore” (IS), to accurately prognosticate colon cancers beyond the TNM-system. The standardization process included not only the IS conceptualization, development, fine-tuning, and validation by a large international consortium, but also a demonstration of the robustness and reproducibility across the world and testing of international norms and their effects on the IS. This is the first step of a major change of paradigm that now perceives cancer as the result of contradicting driving forces, i.e., the tumor expansion and the immune response, interacting dynamically and influencing the prognosis and the response to therapies. This prompted us to evaluate and evidence the capacity of the tumor immune status, as reflected by the IS, to accurately predict chemotherapy responses in an international, randomized cohort study of colon cancer. Moreover, we developed a derived IS performed on initial diagnostic biopsies (IS(B)) to assess response levels to neoadjuvant therapies. In rectal cancer, IS(B) was positively correlated with the degree of histologic response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and identified - alone and even more accurately if combined with clinical data- patients eligible for a noninvasive strategy. Based on these results, we are currently setting up an international cohort for confirmation. The potential role of IS with immunotherapies must be anticipated.