Spatial analyses of immune cell infiltration in cancer: current methods and future directions: A report of the International Immuno‐Oncology Biomarker Working Group on Breast Cancer

Modern histologic imaging platforms coupled with machine learning methods have provided new opportunities to map the spatial distribution of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. However, there exists no standardized method for describing or analyzing spatial immune cell data, and most reported spatial analyses are rudimentary. In this review, we provide an overview of two approaches for reporting and analyzing spatial data (raster versus vector‐based). We then provide a compendium of spatial immune cell metrics that have been reported in the literature, summarizing prognostic associations in the context of a variety of cancers. We conclude by discussing two well‐described clinical biomarkers, the breast cancer stromal tumor infiltrating lymphocytes score and the colon cancer Immunoscore, and describe investigative opportunities to improve clinical utility of these spatial biomarkers. © 2023 The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

N. Halama | J. A. van der Laak | N. Rajpoot | M. Salto‐Tellez | J. Hartman | E. Thompson | C. Sotiriou | S. Loi | D. Larsimont | L. Pusztai | P. V. van Diest | A. Madabhushi | H. Horlings | M. Cheang | J. Reis-Filho | A. Salomon | E. Hytopoulos | D. Rimm | L. Cooper | S. Dudgeon | Yinyin Yuan | K. AbdulJabbar | P. Savas | F. Ciompi | D. Moore | J. Lennerz | Pawan Kirtani | G. Pruneri | S. Demaria | S. Adams | S. Loibl | Z. Kos | M. Hanna | S. Michiels | R. Salgado | A. Hida | A. Grigoriadis | A. Laenkholm | B. Ács | E. Bellolio | G. Broeckx | J. Giltnane | K. Siziopikou | K. Blenman | K. Korski | S. Ely | S. Irshad | S. Fineberg | Wentao Yang | W. Tran | Z. Husain | T. Taxter | S. Tejpar | F. Symmans | J. Saltz | S. Hart | T. Rau | A. Harbhajanka | A. Coosemans | S. Sayed | E. Janssen | S. Gnjatic | Germán Corredor | T. Tramm | W. Gallagher | J. Teuwen | Arman Rahman | C. Jahangir | I. Alvarado-Cabrero | A. Khramtsov | N. Wahab | A. Kovács | Shachi Mittal | B. Rapoport | L. Kodach | A. Ly | Guray Akturk | D. Marks | Thomas Walter | F. Penault-Llorca | E. McDonald | M. Sughayer | Xiaoxian Li | Sara Verbandt | J. Bartlett | T. Kataoka | Daniel G Sur | K. Kawaguchi | G. Acosta Haab | H. Wen | Reena Khiroya | M. Kahila | T. Papathomas | G. Viale | Y. Waumans | Umay Kiraz | O. Burgués | Sunao Tanaka | Najat Bouchmaa | S. Badve | S. Fox | C. Lang-Schwarz | M. Lerousseau | C. Pinard | Durga Kharidehal | A. Hardas | Ravi Mehrotra | C. Denkert | V. Bheemaraju | F. Minhas | J. Thagaard | Rashindrie Perera | Farid Azmoudeh-Ardalan | Shamim Mushtaq | Jonas S. Almeida | F. Deman | Paula I. González-Ericsson | S. Maley | Stephen M. Hewitt | Elisabeth Specht Stovgaard | A. Stenzinger | Claudio Fernandez-Martín | M. Vieth | D. B. Page | Nurkhairul Bariyah Baharun | Luciana Botinelly Mendonça Fujimoto | Flavio Luis Dantas Portela | Mahmoud Elghazawy | Vidya Manur Narasimhamurthy | Hussain Nighat | Juan Carlos Pinto-Cardenas | J. M. Ribeiro | G. Verghese | Rajarsi R Gupta

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