eLife (Sep 2018)
Topography of cancer-associated immune cells in human solid tumors
- Jakob Nikolas Kather,
- Meggy Suarez-Carmona,
- Pornpimol Charoentong,
- Cleo-Aron Weis,
- Daniela Hirsch,
- Peter Bankhead,
- Marcel Horning,
- Dyke Ferber,
- Ivan Kel,
- Esther Herpel,
- Sarah Schott,
- Inka Zörnig,
- Jochen Utikal,
- Alexander Marx,
- Timo Gaiser,
- Herrmann Brenner,
- Jenny Chang-Claude,
- Michael Hoffmeister,
- Dirk Jäger,
- Niels Halama
Affiliations
- Jakob Nikolas Kather
- ORCiD
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; German Cancer Consortium, Heidelberg, Germany; Applied Tumor Immunity, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Hepatobiliary Oncology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
- Meggy Suarez-Carmona
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Applied Tumor Immunity, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- Pornpimol Charoentong
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Applied Tumor Immunity, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- Cleo-Aron Weis
- Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Daniela Hirsch
- Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Peter Bankhead
- ORCiD
- Northern Ireland Molecular Pathology Laboratory, Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
- Marcel Horning
- ORCiD
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
- Dyke Ferber
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Applied Tumor Immunity, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- Ivan Kel
- ORCiD
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
- Esther Herpel
- Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Tissue Bank of the National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg, Germany
- Sarah Schott
- Department of Gynecology, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
- Inka Zörnig
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Applied Tumor Immunity, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- Jochen Utikal
- Skin Cancer Unit, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany; Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Alexander Marx
- Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Timo Gaiser
- Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Herrmann Brenner
- German Cancer Consortium, Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Preventive Oncology, German Cancer Research Center and National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg, Germany
- Jenny Chang-Claude
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany; Cancer Epidemiology Group, University Cancer Center Hamburg, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
- Michael Hoffmeister
- Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- Dirk Jäger
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; German Cancer Consortium, Heidelberg, Germany; Applied Tumor Immunity, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- Niels Halama
- Department of Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine VI, National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; German Cancer Consortium, Heidelberg, Germany; Applied Tumor Immunity, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.36967
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 7
Abstract
Lymphoid and myeloid cells are abundant in the tumor microenvironment, can be quantified by immunohistochemistry and shape the disease course of human solid tumors. Yet, there is no comprehensive understanding of spatial immune infiltration patterns (‘topography’) across cancer entities and across various immune cell types. In this study, we systematically measure the topography of multiple immune cell types in 965 histological tissue slides from N = 177 patients in a pan-cancer cohort. We provide a definition of inflamed (‘hot’), non-inflamed (‘cold’) and immune excluded patterns and investigate how these patterns differ between immune cell types and between cancer types. In an independent cohort of N = 287 colorectal cancer patients, we show that hot, cold and excluded topographies for effector lymphocytes (CD8) and tumor-associated macrophages (CD163) alone are not prognostic, but that a bivariate classification system can stratify patients. Our study adds evidence to consider immune topographies as biomarkers for patients with solid tumors.
Keywords
