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KEY POINTS• CyTOF analysis reveals 7 blood neutrophil clusters correlating with melanoma stage in treatment-naïve patients.• Neutrophil clusters by unbiased-calling are recapitulated by flow cytometry and harbor diverse phagocytic and ROS-producing capacities.
VISUAL ABSTRACTSubmitted separately.
ABSTRACTUnderstanding neutrophil heterogeneity and its relationship to disease progression has become a recent focus of cancer research. Indeed, several studies have identified neutrophil subpopulations associated with pro-or anti-tumoral functions. However, this work has been hindered by the lack of widely-accepted markers with which to define neutrophil subpopulations.To identify markers of neutrophil heterogeneity in cancer, we utilized single-cell cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) coupled with high-dimensional analysis on blood samples from treatmentnaïve, melanoma patients. Our efforts allowed us to identify 7 blood-neutrophil clusters, including 2 previously identified individual populations. Interrogation of these neutrophil subpopulations revealed a positive trend between specific clusters and disease stage. Finally, we recapitulated these 7 blood-neutrophil populations via flow cytometry and found that they exhibit diverse capacities for phagocytosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in vitro. In summary, our data provide a refined consensus on neutrophil-heterogeneity markers, enabling a prospective functional evaluation in patients with solid tumors.