An Immunohistochemical Study of β-catenin Expression and Immune Cell Population in Metastatic Carcinoma to the Liver

Abstract

The liver is the commonest site of cancer metastasis. In this study, we asked whether the immune tumor microenvironment in liver metastases was governed by the β-catenin activation status of the tumor. To this end, we analyzed CD8 and FoxP3 immunohistochemical expression against β-catenin expression status of the tumor in a cohort of 52 liver samples with metastatic carcinoma. The results showed that colorectal primary constituted the largest proportion of metastatic carcinoma showing β-catenin overexpression. Intra-tumoral CD8 count was lower and FoxP3 count was higher when compared with the non-tumoral liver parenchyma. β-catenin overexpression was associated with a lower CD8 count in the tumor region (p = 0.003). In summary, our findings are in support of an altered immune tumor microenvironment vs. the non-tumor liver tissues in the metastatic site. Suppression of CD8 count was associated with activated Wnt/β-catenin signaling in the metastatic tumor.