Uncovering Novel Immune Landscapes in Ovarian Cancer with Spatial Proteomics

Survival rates for patients with high grade serous carcinoma of the ovary (HGSC) have stagnated for the past fifty years. Despite the presence of tumor mutations and infiltration of immune cells, existing immunotherapies have yielded limited efficacy against HGSC. These observations highlight a gap in the understanding of how the immune system functions and interacts within HGSC tumors.

 

To address this gap, a comprehensive analysis of duplicate core samples from 939 HGSC patients was performed. Leveraging high parameter immunohistochemical/Opal multiplex staining, digital pathology, computational biology, and multivariate analysis, immune cell subsets and their associations with HGSC tumors were identified. 

 

In this webinar, the speakers will discuss their findings including six patterns of cellular infiltration defined by spatially restricted unsupervised clustering of cell subsets. These patterns were represented in most patient samples, but their specific distributions differed. Notably, higher infiltration of CD16a+ cells, along with their co-localization with macrophages, T cells, and NK cells within specific cellular neighborhoods, corresponded to improved overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of HGSC patients.

 

Learning Objectives