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Abstract 3864: Cytometric analysis of immune cell populations in clinical tumor biopsy tissue microarrays for immuno-oncology


 Over the past decade, a new focus on the interactions between the immune system and the development and progression of cancer has led to a wide array of research into medical treatments which leverage activation or modulation of the immune system to aid in treatment. Research in the field of immuno-oncology and elucidation of the biological mechanisms by which cancer cells suppress immunological function has led to new biological treatments for cancer, such as pembrolizumab, which have shown great clinical success since their advent. Population-level analysis of immune cell populations is critical for understanding the immune-component of disease progression, and flow cytometry is a commonly utilized technique for this purpose. However, flow cytometry requires dissolution of tissue specimens, and is incompatible with formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples, the gold standard in tissue archives. In order to allow for cytometric analysis of FFPE tissues, we have developed a digital pathology technique for the quantitative assessment of immune-cell populations within tissue microarrays prepared from archived FFPE clinical tissue specimens from patient biopsies. The technique involves a combination of HALO® image analysis using the Highplex FL, Spatial Analysis, and TMA modules, and custom scripting to develop imaging cytometry scatterplots. Bioinformatics techniques were utilized to assess features correlated with tumor progression from the quantitative data extracted from the tissue microarrays.
 Citation Format: Tom Villani, Jigar Patel, Kim Collins, Kate Lillard Tunstall, Bradley Krisanits. Cytometric analysis of immune cell populations in clinical tumor biopsy tissue microarrays for immuno-oncology [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 3864.