Spatial transcriptomics analysis identifies a unique tumor-promoting function of the meningeal stroma in melanoma leptomeningeal disease.

Leptomeningeal disease (LMD) remains a rapidly lethal complication for late-stage melanoma patients. The inaccessible nature of the disease site and lack of understanding of the biology of this unique metastatic site are major barriers to developing efficacious therapies for patients with melanoma LMD. This study aims to characterize the tumor microenvironment of the leptomeningeal tissues and patient-matched extra-cranial metastatic sites using spatial transcriptomic analyses. This study presents five LMD samples and four extracranial metastases from two patients (denoted A and B within the sample names, included in the sample description field) profiled with Visium.