Abstract 1701: CCR6 associates with colon cancer metastasis

Abstract Despite established benefits of screening, colon cancer remains a leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Majority of colon cancer deaths result from metastasis. Effective treatments are not available for advanced disease because molecular mechanisms of initiation and progression of this disease are yet to be defined. Chemokine-chemokine receptor interaction plays an important role in cancer progression. In this study, using colon cancer tissue microarray, we have shown that expression of CCR6 was significantly higher in advanced colon cancer (p<0.0001) with distant and regional lymph node metastasis as compared to non-metastatic and adjacent normal tissues. Expression of CCR6 was further confirmed in cell lines derived from Dukes's type C and type D colon cancer patients using flow cytometric analysis. Like tissues, CCR6 expression was significantly (p<0.0001) higher in colon cancer cell lines compared to normal colon epithelial cells. Furthermore, colon cancer cells showed higher migratory potential toward chemotactic gradient of its only known natural ligand, CCL20. Cell proliferation was also inhibited in presence of CCL20. Significant decrease in E-cadherin, increased expression of vimentin, β-catenin, N-cadherin, α-SMA, SNAIL and ZEB1 was observed following CCL20 treatment. These results suggest the importance of CCR6-CCL20 axis in the etiopathogenesis of colon cancer and highlight its potential as therapeutic target. Citation Format: Neeraj Kapur, Hina Mir, Clarence E. Clark, Uma Krishnamurti, Derrick J. Beech, James W. Lillard, Shailesh Singh. CCR6 associates with colon cancer metastasis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1701.