Spatial heterogeneity of immune infiltration predicts the prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.

ABSTRACT: Spatial information on the tumor immune microenvironment is of clinical relevance. Here, we aimed to quantify the spatial heterogeneity of lymphocytes and cancer cells and evaluated its prognostic value in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The scanned immunohistochemistry images of 336 NPC patients from two different hospitals were used to generate cell density maps for tumor and immune cells. Then, Getis-Ord hotspot analysis, a spatial statistic method used to describe species biodiversity in ecological habitats, was applied to identify cancer, immune, and immune-cancer hotspots. The results showed that cancer hotspots were not associated with any of the studied clinical outcomes, while immune-cancer hotspots predicted worse overall survival (OS) in the training cohort. In con

SUBMITTER: Wang YQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8555536 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature