Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy With CAPOX Versus Chemoradiation for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer With Uninvolved Mesorectal Fascia (CONVERT): Initial Results of a Phase III Trial.

Objective: To compare neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nCT) with CAPOX alone versus neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) with capecitabine in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) with uninvolved mesorectal fascia (MRF).

Background Data: nCRT is associated with higher surgical complications, worse long-term functional outcomes, and questionable survival benefits. Comparatively, nCT alone seems a promising alternative treatment in lower-risk LARC patients with uninvolved MRF.

Ex-vivo analysis of CD8+ T cells infiltrating colorectal tumors identifies a major effector-memory subset with low perforin content.

Previous studies have indicated that the infiltration of CD8+ T cells in colorectal cancer is an independent predictor of increased survival but clinical observations have suggested that the cytotoxic function of CD8+ T cells infiltrating colorectal cancer may often be limited. In this study, we have assessed the phenotype of colorectal cancer CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) isolated ex vivo from tumor tissue, and assessed the perforin content of TIL with respect to their location using immunohistochemistry. We found that CD8+ T cells TILs isolated from colorectal cancer are mainly composed of antigen-experienced cells of effector memory type (TEM, CD45RA-CCR7-, and CD27+/CD28- or CD27-/CD28-), and contain only minor proportions of terminally differentiated CD8+ T cells (TEMRA, CD45RA+CCR7-).