Neighborhood clustering analysis to define epithelial-stromal interface for tumor infiltrating lymphocyte evaluation

Evaluation of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes as recommended by current guidelines is largely based on stromal regions within the tumor. In the context of epithelial malignancies, the epithelial region and the epithelial-stromal interface are not assessed, because of technical difficulties in manually discerning lymphocytes when admixed with epithelial tumor cells. The inability to quantify immune cells in epithelial-associated areas may negatively impact evaluation of patient response to immune checkpoint therapies. Innovative spatial analysis techniques have emerged that can directly address challenges associated with quantification of lymphocytes in specialized regions like the interface. In this study, we apply supervised neighborhood clustering analysis (via an open-source application CytoMAP) to assess the spatial distribution of CD8+ T cells, CD8+ TIM3+ (T cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain containing-3) exhausted T cells, and TIM3+ CD8- macrophages on a gynecological tumor microarray. Neighborhood clustering analysis is adept at objectively mapping the epithelial-stromal interface alongside the epithelial and stromal region of each tumor under a three-compartment model. When tumors are partitioned by the conventional two-compartment model (epithelial and stromal region only), the highest density of total CD8+ T cells is found in the stromal region in a slight majority of tumors. In contrast, the interface region surpasses both the epithelial and stromal region in holding the highest density of CD8+ T cells when this unique region is incorporated into the three-compartment model. Further subset analysis shows higher proportion of CD8+ TIM3+ exhausted T cells within the interface and epithelial region, as compared to CD8+ TIM3- T cells which span from the stroma to the interface. These results highlight the utility of implementing quantitative spatial technique and immune subset analysis in the assessment of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, and underscore the potential significance of the under-reported tumor epithelial-stromal interface.