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Visualization, Quantification, and Mapping of Immune Cell Populations in the Tumor Microenvironment
Published on: March 25, 2020
Potentiality of multiple modalities for single-cell analyses to evaluate the tumor microenvironment in clinical
Yukie Kashima1, Yosuke Togashi2, Shota Fukuoka2
1Division of Translational Genomics, Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center, Chiba, 277-8577, Japan.
Insights
Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) effectively analyzes tumor microenvironment (TME) immune cells in small gastric cancer biopsies. This approach offers novel strategies for overcoming cancer heterogeneity challenges.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Oncology
- Genomics
Background:
- Tumor microenvironments (TME) exhibit cellular heterogeneity crucial for cancer progression and treatment resistance.
- Understanding immune cell profiles within the TME is vital for developing effective cancer therapies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate immune cell heterogeneity in gastric cancer using single-cell analysis.
- To technically characterize and compare RNA-sequencing-based analysis (scRNA-seq) and mass cytometry-based analysis (CyTOF) for TME profiling.
Main Methods:
- Single-cell analyses were performed on endoscopically or surgically resected gastric tumors and peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
- Two platforms, scRNA-seq and CyTOF, were technically evaluated for their ability to profile immune cells in the TME.
Main Results:
- scRNA-seq demonstrated broader coverage of TME immune cells, including rare B cell and Treg populations, in small tumor biopsy samples.
- CyTOF provided deeper distinction of specific immune cell populations.
- scRNA-seq proved highly feasible for analyzing TME complexity in small biopsy specimens.
Conclusions:
- scRNA-seq is a powerful and feasible platform for elucidating TME complexity in small gastric cancer biopsies.
- These findings may inform novel therapeutic strategies to address cancer heterogeneity in the TME.
Abstract:
Single-cell level analysis is powerful tool to assess the heterogeneity of cellular components in tumor microenvironments (TME). In this study, we investigated immune-profiles using the single-cell analyses of endoscopically- or surgically-resected tumors, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from gastric cancer patients. Furthermore, we technically characterized two distinct platforms of the single-cell analysis; RNA-seq-based analysis (scRNA-seq), and mass cytometry-based analysis (CyTOF), both of which are broadly embraced technologies. Our study revealed that the scRNA-seq analysis could cover a broader range of immune cells of TME in the biopsy-resected small samples of tumors, detecting even small subgroups of B cells or Treg cells in the tumors, although CyTOF could distinguish the specific populations in more depth. These findings demonstrate that scRNA-seq analysis is a highly-feasible platform for elucidating the complexity of TME in small biopsy tumors, which would provide a novel strategies to overcome a therapeutic difficulties against cancer heterogeneity in TME.
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