Study

Combined gene expression and digital pathology identifies molecular mediators of T cell exclusion and immune suppression in ovarian cancer

Study ID Alternative Stable ID Type
EGAS00001003487 Other

Study Description

Close proximity between cytotoxic T lymphocytes and tumour cells is required for effective immunotherapy. However, what determines the spatial distribution of T cells in the tumour microenvironment is not well understood. Coupling digital pathology and transcriptome analysis on a large ovarian tumour cohort, we develop a machine learning approach to molecularly classify and characterize tumour-immune phenotypes. Our study identifies two important hallmarks characterizing T cell excluded tumours: 1) loss of antigen presentation on tumour cells and 2) upregulation of TGFb and activated stroma. Furthermore, we identify TGFb as a key mediator of T cell exclusion. TGFb reduces MHC-I expression in ovarian cancer cells in vitro; TGFb also activates fibroblasts and induced extracellular matrix (ECM) production as a potential physical barrier to hinder T cell infiltration. Our findings indicate that targeting TGFb may represent a promising strategy to overcome T cell exclusion and improve clinical benefits of cancer immunotherapy.

Study Datasets 1 dataset.

Click on a Dataset ID in the table below to learn more, and to find out who to contact about access to these data

Dataset ID Description Technology Samples
EGAD00001004988
Collection of RNA-seq, Illumina, paired-end fastq files for 370 archival tissues from a subset of patients with high grade serous ovarian carcinoma enrolled in the phase 3 ICON7 trial. Clinical data and digital pathology information for CD8 is also available.
Illumina HiSeq 2500 370

Who archives the data?

Publications

Citations

Retrieving...
Retrieving...