Jenny C. Chang, MD, the Emily Herrmann Chair in Cancer Research and Director of the Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, found the results from imaging mass cytometry to be exciting and intriguing.1 The researchers examined “spatial connectivity” among cancer cells and their microenvironment, which she explained as “the distance between cells of interest.”
Jenny C. Chang, MD
“The research is telling us that triple-negative breast cancer is a very heterogeneous disease, and the response to immune therapy is, in part, not only dependent upon cancer cells but also the immune cells in the microenvironment,” she said in an interview with The ASCO Post. The innovation in multiplexing—imaging mass cytometry—reveals there are many different types of immune cells that interact in different ways with the tumor cells. “That’s a completely new way of looking at things,” she said.
Using conventional bulk protein analysis reveals far less, she said. “But with single-cell analysis, we are able to see differences in how cancer interacts with the microenvironment, and that’s significant…. We are now able to measure 40 different markers and see a clearer picture, rather than an x-ray.”
DISCLOSURE: Dr. Chang reported no conflicts of interest.
REFERENCE
1. Bianchini G, Wang XQ, Danenberg E, et al: Single-cell spatial analysis by imaging mass cytometry and immunotherapy response in triple-negative breast cancer in the NeoTRIPaPDL1 trial. 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Abstract GS1-00. Presented December 7, 2021.
