Development of an Automatic Measurement Method for CD8 and PD-1 Positive T Cells Using Image Analysis Software

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Immunology
• Computational Pathology

Background:

• Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy has advanced cancer treatment.
• Accurate assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is crucial for evaluating ICB efficacy.
• Histological analysis of TILs requires efficient and reliable quantification methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an automated imaging software-based method for measuring TILs.
• To compare the accuracy of automated TIL counting with manual counting methods.
• To establish a simple tool for evaluating cancer immunotherapy effects.

Main Methods:

• Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections from colorectal and gastric cancer patients were stained for CD8 and PD-1.
• An in-house algorithm and imaging analysis software were used to establish an automated TIL measurement method.
• Automated counts were compared against manual counting using Pearson correlation.

Main Results:

• Automated CD8+ T cell counting showed good correlation with manual counts (r=0.738).
• Initial PD-1+ T cell measurements showed discrepancies between automated and manual methods.
• Adjusting software parameters improved the correlation for PD-1+ T cell measurements (r=0.668).

Conclusions:

• Automated imaging software provides a simple and useful method for TIL status evaluation.
• This approach can aid in assessing the therapeutic effects of cancer immunotherapies.
• The developed tool supports the quantitative analysis of immune responses in tumors.