Characterization of CD 26+CD110+ (liver) and CD26+CDCP1+ (lung) cancer stem cell populations, determination of their mutational heterogeneity and the differences of the liver vs. lung niche

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Colorectal cancer is the second most frequent cancer in men and women. At time of diagnosis 25% of patients do have metastatic disease and 50% of patients will develop metastases during the course of their disease. This high metastatic rate leads to the majority of patients initially not being candidates for curative resection (1). Further, organspecific metastases do directly impact on overall survival in these patients. Liver metastasis is one of the most important prognosticators. Their resection can significantly improve their survival. Adding to this, recent data has shown a survival benefit for patients in whom all liver metastases are resected in the presence of unresectable lung metastases (2). However, patients with colorectal liver metastases do have a considerably worse prognosis compared to patients with colorectal lung metastases alone (3). Therefore, this suggests that there are differences in tumor biology of colorectal liver and lung metastases. An important subpopulation of cells in colorectal cancer are cancer stem cells (CSC) metastasis that confer the biological behavior and aggressiveness of the colorectal cancer. Cancer stem cells can be detected by their epitopes and thus also be identified in case of metastasis. Today, no further analysis of cancer stem cells concerning organspecific metastasis has been performed and consequently the reason for the differences in aggressiveness of colorectal liver and lung metastases remains unclear. The aim of this project is the characterization of CD 26+CD110+ (liver) and CD26+CDCP1+ (lung) cancer stem cell populations, determination of their mutational heterogeneity and the differences of the liver vs. lung niche.