High-dimensional imaging of colorectal carcinoma and other tumors with 50+ markers

We have used CODEX to image 56 proteins simultaneously in 140 tissue regions from the tumor invasive front of 35 advanced-stage colorectal cancer (CRC) patients (17 patients with Crohn's-like reaction (CLR) - leading to high amount of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS); and 18 patients with diffuse inflammatory infiltration (DII) and no TLS). These patients were selected from an initial cohort of 715 CRC patients. Patients with low-stage CRC (pTNM 0-2), pre-operative chemotherapy, insufficient material, and low immune infiltration were excluded. The 35 resulting patients were matched for age, sex and tumor characteristics. CLR patients had a much better survival compared to DII patients.本研究采用CODEX技术，对35例晚期结直肠癌（colorectal cancer, CRC）患者的140个肿瘤侵袭前沿组织区域内的56种蛋白质同时完成成像分析。其中17例患者伴有克罗恩样反应（Crohn's-like reaction, CLR），此类患者体内存在大量三级淋巴结构（tertiary lymphoid structures, TLS）；剩余18例患者表现为弥漫性炎症浸润（diffuse inflammatory infiltration, DII）且未形成TLS。本研究初始队列共纳入715例CRC患者，最终筛选出上述35例受试者，期间排除了低分期CRC（pTNM 0~2期）、术前接受化疗、组织样本不足以及免疫浸润程度较低的病例。入选的35例患者在年龄、性别及肿瘤特征方面均已进行匹配。相较于DII组患者，CLR组患者的生存率显著更优。