Image-based multiplex immune profiling of cancer tissues: translational implications. A report of the International Immuno-oncology Biomarker Working Group on Breast Cancer

Chowdhury Arif Jahangir, David B. Page, Glenn Broeckx, Claudia A. Gonzalez, Caoimbhe Burke, Clodagh Murphy, Jorge S. Reis-Filho, Amy Ly, Paul W. Harms, Rajarsi R. Gupta, Michael Vieth, Akira I. Hida, Mohamed Kahila, Zuzana Kos, Paul J. van Diest, Sara Verbandt, Jeppe Thagaard, Reena Khiroya, Khalid Abduljabbar, Gabriela Acosta HaabBalazs Acs, Sylvia Adams, Jonas S. Almeida, Isabel Alvarado-Cabrero, Farid Azmoudeh-Ardalan, Sunil Badve, Nurkhairul Bariyah Baharun, Enrique R. Bellolio, Vydehi Bheemaraju, Kim R.M. Blenman, Luciana Botinelly Mendonça Fujimoto, Octavio Burgues, Alexandros Chardas, Maggie Chon U. Cheang, Francesco Ciompi, Lee A.D. Cooper, An Coosemans, Germán Corredor, Flavio Luis Dantas Portela, Frederik Deman, Sandra Demaria, Sarah N. Dudgeon, Mahmoud Elghazawy, Claudio Fernandez-Martín, Susan Fineberg, Stephen B. Fox, Jennifer M. Giltnane, Sacha Gnjatic, Paula I. Gonzalez-Ericsson, Anita Grigoriadis, Niels Halama, Matthew G. Hanna, Aparna Harbhajanka, Steven N. Hart, Johan Hartman, Stephen Hewitt, Hugo M. Horlings, Zaheed Husain, Sheeba Irshad, Emiel A.M. Janssen, Tatsuki R. Kataoka, Kosuke Kawaguchi, Andrey I. Khramtsov, Umay Kiraz, Pawan Kirtani, Liudmila L. Kodach, Konstanty Korski, Guray Akturk, Ely Scott, Anikó Kovács, Anne Vibeke Lænkholm, Corinna Lang-Schwarz, Denis Larsimont, Jochen K. Lennerz, Marvin Lerousseau, Xiaoxian Li, Anant Madabhushi, Sai K. Maley, Vidya Manur Narasimhamurthy, Douglas K. Marks, Elizabeth S. McDonald, Ravi Mehrotra, Stefan Michiels, Durga Kharidehal, Fayyaz ul Amir Afsar Minhas, Shachi Mittal, David A. Moore, Shamim Mushtaq, Hussain Nighat, Thomas Papathomas, Frederique Penault-Llorca, Rashindrie D. Perera, Christopher J. Pinard, Juan Carlos Pinto-Cardenas, Giancarlo Pruneri, Lajos Pusztai, Nasir Mahmood Rajpoot, Bernardo Leon Rapoport, Tilman T. Rau, Joana M. Ribeiro, David Rimm, Anne Vincent-Salomon, Joel Saltz, Shahin Sayed, Evangelos Hytopoulos, Sarah Mahon, Kalliopi P. Siziopikou, Christos Sotiriou, Albrecht Stenzinger, Maher A. Sughayer, Daniel Sur, Fraser Symmans, Sunao Tanaka, Timothy Taxter, Sabine Tejpar, Jonas Teuwen, E. Aubrey Thompson, Trine Tramm, William T. Tran, Jeroen van der Laak, Gregory E. Verghese, Giuseppe Viale, Noorul Wahab, Thomas Walter, Yannick Waumans, Hannah Y. Wen, Wentao Yang, Yinyin Yuan, John Bartlett, Sibylle Loibl, Carsten Denkert, Peter Savas, Sherene Loi, Elisabeth Specht Stovgaard, Roberto Salgado, William M. Gallagher, Arman Rahman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent advances in the field of immuno-oncology have brought transformative changes in the management of cancer patients. The immune profile of tumours has been found to have key value in predicting disease prognosis and treatment response in various cancers. Multiplex immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence have emerged as potent tools for the simultaneous detection of multiple protein biomarkers in a single tissue section, thereby expanding opportunities for molecular and immune profiling while preserving tissue samples. By establishing the phenotype of individual tumour cells when distributed within a mixed cell population, the identification of clinically relevant biomarkers with high-throughput multiplex immunophenotyping of tumour samples has great potential to guide appropriate treatment choices. Moreover, the emergence of novel multi-marker imaging approaches can now provide unprecedented insights into the tumour microenvironment, including the potential interplay between various cell types. However, there are significant challenges to widespread integration of these technologies in daily research and clinical practice. This review addresses the challenges and potential solutions within a structured framework of action from a regulatory and clinical trial perspective. New developments within the field of immunophenotyping using multiplexed tissue imaging platforms and associated digital pathology are also described, with a specific focus on translational implications across different subtypes of cancer.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)271-288
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Pathology
Volume262
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2024

Funding

GB was funded by the Gilead Breast Cancer Research Grant 2023. JSR\u2010F was funded in part by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a Susan G Komen Leadership Grant, and NIH/NCI P50 CA247749 01 grant. SV was supported by Interne Fondsen KU Leuven/Internal Funds KU Leuven. BA received the Swedish Society for Medical Research (Svenska S\u00E4llskapet f\u00F6r Medicinsk Forskning) Postdoctoral Grant and the Swedish Breast Cancer Association (Br\u00F6stcancerf\u00F6rbundet) Research Grant 2021. GC was supported by the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (Award W81XWH\u201021\u20101\u20100160) from the US Department of Defense and the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE Grant P50 CA116201 from the NIH. CF\u2010M was funded by the Horizon 2020 European Union research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska Curie grant agreement no. 860627 (CLARIFY Project). SBF: NHMRC GNT1193630. SG was partially supported by NIH Grant CA224319, DK124165, CA263705, and CA196521. AG was supported by Breast Cancer Now (and their legacy charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK/07/012, KCL\u2010BCN\u2010Q3). TRK: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (21K06909). UK was funded by the Horizon 2020 European Union Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sk\u0142odowska\u2010Curie grant agreement no. 860627 (CLARIFY Project). JKL was in part supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R37 CA225655). AM was supported by the National Cancer Institute under award numbers R01CA268287A1, U01CA269181, R01CA26820701A1, R01CA249992\u201001A1, R01CA202752\u201001A1, R01CA208236\u201001A1, R01CA216579\u201001A1, R01CA220581\u201001A1, R01CA257612\u201001A1, 1U01CA239055\u201001, 1U01CA248226\u201001, 1U54CA254566\u201001, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute 1R01HL15127701A1, R01HL15807101A1, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering 1R43EB028736\u201001, VA Merit Review Award IBX004121A from the US Department of Veterans Affairs Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, through the Breast Cancer Research Program (W81XWH\u201019\u20101\u20100668), the Prostate Cancer Research Program (W81XWH\u201020\u20101\u20100851), the Lung Cancer Research Program (W81XWH\u201018\u20101\u20100440, W81XWH\u201020\u20101\u20100595), the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (W81XWH\u201018\u20101\u20100404, W81XWH\u201021\u20101\u20100345, W81XWH\u201021\u20101\u20100160), the Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP) Glue Grant and sponsored research agreements from Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer\u2010Ingelheim, Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca. SKM thanks Kay Pogue\u2010Geile, Director of Molecular Profiling at NSABP for her constant support and encouragement, Roberto Salgado, for getting me initiated into the wonderful subject of immuno\u2010oncology and its possibilities. FuAM received funding from EPSRC EP/W02909X/1 and PathLAKE consortium. FP\u2010L received research grants from Fondation ARC, La Ligue contre le Cancer. RDP received the Melbourne Research Scholarship and a scholarship from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. JS: UH3CA225021, U24CA215109. ST was supported by Interne Fondsen KU Leuven/Internal Funds KU Leuven. JT was supported by institutional grants of the KWF Kankerbestrijding and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. EAT received the Breast Cancer Research Foundation Grant 22\u2010161. GEV was supported by Breast Cancer Now (and their legacy charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK/07/012, KCL\u2010BCN\u2010Q3). TW was supported by the French Government under management of Agence Nationale de la Recherche as part of the \u2018Investissements d'avenir\u2019 program, reference ANR\u201019\u2010P3IA\u20100001 (PRAIRIE 3IA Institute) and by Q\u2010Life (ANR\u201017\u2010CONV\u20100005). HYW was funded in part by the NIH/NCI P50 CA247749 01 grant. YY received funding from Cancer Research UK Career Establishment Award (CRUK C45982/A21808). PS received funding support from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia. SL was supported by the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia (NBCF) (APP ID: EC\u201017\u2010001), the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, New York (BCRF (APP ID: BCRF\u201021\u2010102), and a National Health and Medical Council of Australia (NHMRC) Investigator Grant (APP ID: 1162318). RS was supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF, grant no. 17\u2010194). WMG was supported by the North\u2013South Research Programme administered by the Higher Education Authority on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Shared Island Fund (AICRIstart: A Foundation Stone for the All\u2010Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI): Building Critical Mass in Precision Cancer Medicine https://www.aicri.org/aicristart ), Irish Cancer Society (Collaborative Cancer Research Centre BREAST\u2010PREDICT; CCRC13GAL; https://www.breastpredict.com ), the Science Foundation Ireland Investigator Programme (OPTi\u2010PREDICT; 15/IA/3104), the Science Foundation Ireland Strategic Partnership Programme (Precision Oncology Ireland; 18/SPP/3522; https://www.precisiononcology.ie ). Open access funding provided by IReL. GB was funded by the Gilead Breast Cancer Research Grant 2023. JSR-F was funded in part by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a Susan G Komen Leadership Grant, and NIH/NCI P50 CA247749 01 grant. SV was supported by Interne Fondsen KU Leuven/Internal Funds KU Leuven. BA received the Swedish Society for Medical Research (Svenska S\u00E4llskapet f\u00F6r Medicinsk Forskning) Postdoctoral Grant and the Swedish Breast Cancer Association (Br\u00F6stcancerf\u00F6rbundet) Research Grant 2021. GC was supported by the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (Award W81XWH-21-1-0160) from the US Department of Defense and the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE Grant P50 CA116201 from the NIH. CF-M was funded by the Horizon 2020 European Union research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska Curie grant agreement no. 860627 (CLARIFY Project).

Keywords

  • cancer prognosis
  • clinical integration
  • digital image analysis
  • multiplex imaging
  • multiplex immunofluorescence
  • multiplex immunohistochemistry
  • therapy response
  • tumour immune profiling
  • tumour infiltrating lymphocytes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pathology and Forensic Medicine

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