Interactions between tumor and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) play a key role in tumor progression and treatment response, with accumulating evidence indicating a crucial role for tumor infiltrating immune cells. Although infiltrating T cells have been correlated with improved clinical outcome, they are ineffective in eradicating tumors due to their inhibition by immune checkpoint molecules.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy and durable response for several tumor types, including NSCLC. However, the majority of patients are resistant or relapse after initial response. Characterizing the TME for checkpoint expression with single-cell and spatial resolution can provide critical insight into new immunotherapeutic strategies and identify new predictive biomarkers for stratifying patients most likely to benefit from immunotherapies.
In addition, the visualization of immunosuppressive factors that contribute to tumor evasion by recruiting and modulating regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived cells could offer a more comprehensive understanding of the TME.
In this webinar, we will highlight the in situ visualization of the following targets at the single-cell level in the TME of NSCLC and ovarian cancer archived FFPE tissue samples using the highly specific and sensitive in situ hybridization assay RNAscope™: - Expression and co-expression profiles of therapeutic checkpoint targets including PD1, PD-L1, PD-L2, TIM3, LAG3, CTLA-4 and GITR in individual infiltrating immune cells within the morphological tissue context.
- Immune infiltration and state of lymphoid and myeloid cells in the TME by detecting key functional molecules, FOXP3, IFNg, CXCL10, and CCL22 combined with cell lineage markers CD4, CD8, CD68, and CD163
