Highly multiplexed imaging reveals prognostic immune and stromal spatial biomarkers in breast cancer

• DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.176749
• Publication Date: 2025-01-14T17:00:21Z
• Authors: Jennifer R. Eng; Elmar Bucher; Zhi Hu; Cameron R. Walker; Tyler Risom; Michael Angelo; Paula Gonzalez-Er...; Melinda E. Sanders; A. Bapsi Chakrava...; Jennifer A. Piete...; Summer L. Gibbs; Rosalie C. Sears; Koei Chin

Spatial profiling of tissues promises to elucidate tumor-microenvironment interactions and generate prognostic predictive biomarkers. We analyzed single-cell, spatial data from three multiplex imaging technologies: cyclic immunofluorescence (CycIF) we generated 102 breast cancer patients with clinical follow-up, publicly available mass cytometry ion-beam datasets. Similar single-cell phenotyping results across platforms enabled combined analysis epithelial phenotypes delineate subtypes among estrogen-receptor positive (ER+) patients. utilized discovery validation cohorts identify biomarkers value. Increased lymphocyte infiltration was independently associated longer survival in triple-negative (TN) high-proliferation ER+ tumors. An assessment ten methods revealed robust In disease, quiescent stromal cells close tumor were abundant good prognosis tumors, while cell neighborhoods containing mixed fibroblast enriched poor TN macrophage/tumor B/T neighbors lymphocytes dispersed vimentin-positive fibroblasts conclusion, comparable proteomic several enable biomarker identification validation.