Table 3.

Associations between CAF phenotype, TILs and clinicopathological data of patients with CRC

Variables	Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) phenotype
	Expression pattern
	Stromal					Tumoral
	Biomarker
	α-SMA	Fibronectin	FAP-α	Thrombin	Type III Collagen	Fibronectin	Thrombin
TILs
CD3+ cells	r = 0.077	r = 0.336	r = 0.204	r = −0.074	r = −0.062	r = 0.331	r = −0.004
	p = 0.504	p = 0.0026	p < 0.0001	p = 0.520	p = 0.591	p = 0.003	p = 0.974
CD4+ cells	r = −0.031	r = 0.374	r = 0.392	r = 0.167	r = 0.046	r = 0.369	r = 0.115
	p = 0.788	p = 0.001	p = 0.001	p = 0.148	p = 0.690	p = 0.001	p = 0.320
CD8+ cells	r = −0.239	r = 0.047	r = 0.204	r = 0.158	r = 0.031	r = 0.124	r = 0.044
	p = 0.035	r = 0.686	p = 0.077	p = 0.171	p = 0.790	p = 0.277	p = 0.701
CD45+ cells	r = −0.354	r = 0.321	r = 0.494	r = 0.180	r = 0.072	r = 0.166	r = 0.038
	p = 0.001	p = 0.004	p < 0.0001	p = 0.117	p = 0.536	p = 0.147	p = 0.746
Immuno regulators
Stromal
PD-L1	r = 0.081	r = 0.357	r = 0.541	r = −0.021	r = 0.096	r = 0.202	r = −0.099
	p = 0.486	p = 0.001	p < 0.0001	p = 0.854	p = 0.406	p = 0.078	p = 0.390
CD14	r = 0.168	r = 0.160	r = 0.314	r = 0.072	r = 0.065	r = 0.158	r = −0.093
	r = 0.143	p = 0.143	p = 0.006	p = 0.536	p = 0.573	p = 0.171	p = 0.419
CD33	r = 0.141	r = 0.457	r = 0.476	r = −0.151	r = −0.021	r = 0.305	r = 0.083
	p = 0.220	p < 0.0001	p < 0.0001	p = 0.190	p = 0.857	p = 0.007	p = 0.475
IL-2Rα	r = −0.078	r = 0.059	r = 0.450	r = 0.075	r = −0.035	r = 0.130	r = 0.059
	p = 0.500	p = 0.612	p < 0.0001	p = 0.519	p = 0.763	p = 0.258	p = 0.611
Tumoral
PD-L1	r = 0.112	r = 0.366	r = 0.464	r = −0.077	r = 0.219	r = 0.252	r = 0.148
	p = 0.330	p = 0.01	p < 0.0001	p = 0. 506	r = 0.1485	p = 0.027	p = 0.200
CD14	r = −0.046	r = 0.108	r = 0.039	r = 0.095	r = 0.069	r = 0.186	r =−0.057
	p = 0.692	p = 0.348	p = 0.736	p = 0.413	p = 0.549	p = 0.105	p = 0.624
CD33	r = 0.234	r = 0.365	r = 0.319	r = −0.059	r = 0.033	r = 0.338	r = 0.221
	p = 0.039	p = 0.001	p = 0.005	p = 0.053	p = 0.774	p = 0.002	p = 0. 053
IL-2Rα	r = 0.113	r = −0.076	r = 0.307	r = 0. 078	r = 0.133	r =−0.003	r = 0.081
	p = 0.509	p = 0.327	p = 0.007	p = 0.499	p = 0.247	p = 0.979	p = 0.059
Demographic data
Age	r = -0.218	r = 0.006	r = 0.145	r = -0.112	r = -0.092	r = -0.041	r = 0.021
	p = 0.055	p = 0.959	p = 0.210	p = 0.332	p = 0.426	p = 0.721	p = 0.853
Sex (Female/Male)	p = 0.4847	p = 0.1273	p = 0.0916	p = 0.6693	p = 0.2266	p = 0.6307	p = 0.9096
Anatomical site of primary CRC
Left-sided	p = 0.4140	p = 0.1841	p = 0.2181	p = 0.7693	p = 0.5493	p = 0.1408	p = 0.3216
Right-sided
Histopathology
Mucinous	p = 0.8378	p = 0.5338	p = 0.5762	p = 0.6634	p = 0.4138	p = 0.1444	p = 0.0771
Non-mucinous
Macroscopic subtype
Ulcerated	p = 0.5649	p = 0.6634	p = 0.1318	p = 0.6822	p = 0.0145	p = 0.9599	p = 0.1608
Non-ulcerated
Tumor size	p = 0.7887	p = 0.9465	p = 0.5271	p = 0.4142	p = 0.7297	p = 0.3786	p = 0.6877
≤ 2 cm & > 2 cm
Tumor budding	p = 0.7965	p = 0.4795	p = 0.6747	p = 0.0645	p = 0.3217	p = 0.3129	p = 0.3540