Digital spatial profiling for pathologists

Area of Science:

• Cancer research
• Pathology
• Genomics
• Spatial biology

Background:

• "Omics" technologies offer deep tumor profiling but struggle to capture full tumor complexity and spatial context.
• Pathologists prefer in situ assessments, like immunohistochemistry, over bulk profiling methods.
• Existing methods often fail to integrate morphological and genomic data effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and utility of the NanoString GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) from a pathologist's viewpoint.
• To demonstrate DSP's capability in multiplex profiling of tissue slides guided by morphology.
• To showcase DSP's application in diverse neoplastic settings: breast carcinoma, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, and biphasic mesothelioma.

Main Methods:

• Applied NanoString GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) on tissue slides from three distinct cancer types.
• Utilized morphology-guided selection of regions of interest on hematoxylin-eosin stained slides.
• Performed multiplex profiling to digitally quantify target analytes in situ within specific tissue compartments.

Main Results:

• Successfully distinguished tumor cells from the microenvironment in breast carcinoma using two antibodies.
• Differentiated between epithelioid and sarcomatoid components in biphasic mesothelioma.
• Effectively separated anaplastic and well-differentiated areas in thyroid carcinoma.

Conclusions:

• Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) is a promising tool integrating traditional histology with in situ digital profiling.
• DSP allows spatial assessment of tumors and their microenvironments, overcoming limitations of bulk genomic methods.
• Pathologists can leverage DSP to combine morphological and genomic analyses for advanced cancer progression studies.