Reliability of a Single-region Tumor Sample for Evaluating the Immune Tumor Microenvironment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Tumors

Heterogeneity in immune microenvironment within a tumor may pose a barrier to evaluate immune tumor microenvironment by using a single-region tumor sample, such as a single tumor biopsy. Our study using both immunohistochemical and transcriptomic analyses showed that a single-region sample is reliable for evaluation of immune tumor microenvironment in 60-70% of HCC patients. Multiregion sampling was performed from newly resected tumors. The immune tumor microenvironment was evaluated by RNA-seq in selected samples.