The Pandora’s box of novel technologies that may revolutionize lung cancer

Abstract

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most common cancers globally and has a 5-year survival rate ~20%. Immunotherapies have demonstrated long-term and durable responses in NSCLC patients, although they appear to be effective in only a subset of patients. A more comprehensive understanding of the underlying tumour biology may contribute to identifying those patients likely to achieve optimal outcomes. Profiling the tumour microenvironment (TME) has shown to be beneficial in addressing fundamental tumour-immune cell interactions. Advances in multiplexing immunohistochemistry and molecular barcoding has led to recent advances in profiling genes and proteins in NSCLC. Here, we review the recent advancements in spatial profiling technologies for the analysis of NSCLC tissue samples to gain new insights and therapeutic options for NSCLC. The combination of spatial transcriptomics combined with advanced imaging is likely to lead to deep insights into NSCLC tissue biology, which can be a powerful tool to predict likelihood of response to therapy.

B Cells in Tumor Microenvironment Associated With The Clinical Benefit to Programmed Cell Death Protein-1 Blockade Therapy in Patients With Advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…We thus did not explore the significance of TLS signature in the current study. Forth, the spatial profiling and the relative location or potential interaction of B cells with other immune cells were not investigated in this study ( 32 ). Lastly, this study merely provides an association between B cells in the TME and the clinical efficacy of anti-PD-1 treatment but no mechanistic insights.…”

Understanding the tumor microenvironment in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

“…The TME is a heterogeneous milieu of cell types, including immune and non‐immune cells, that surrounds the tumor 12 (Figure 1). There are broadly three types of tumor phenotypes, characterised by the TME, and defined by the cell type, density and location: inflamed, immune‐excluded and immune‐desert tumors 13 (Figure 2). Inflamed tumors are defined when immune cells infiltrate the tumor and the stroma 14 .…”

Molecular analysis of vascular gene expression

“…Additional methods to measure RNA levels directly in tissue sections have been developed 6,43,88 . These are based on a combination of quantitative gene expression data and visualization of transcripts or proteins, thereby providing spatial information (Table 1).…”