A Ludwig Cancer Research study has profiled, in a large comparative analysis, the distinct immune landscapes of tumors that arise in the brain (gliomas) and those that metastasize to the organ from the lungs, breast, and skin. Led by Ludwig Lausanne Member Johanna Joyce, PhD, and published in Cell, the study “Interrogation of the Microenvironmental Landscape in Brain Tumors Reveals Disease-Specific Alterations of Immune Cells” captures in detail how the functions, locations, and characteristics of various immune cells sculpt the tumor microenvironment (TME) to thwart immune attack, support cancer cell survival and drive tumor progression.
“Brain malignancies encompass a range of primary and metastatic cancers, including low-grade and high-grade gliomas and brain metastases (BrMs) originating from diverse extracranial tumors. Our understanding of the brain tumor microenvironment (TME) remains limited, and it is unknown whether it is sculpted differentially by primary versus metastatic disease,” write the investigators.
“We therefore comprehensively analyzed the brain TME landscape via flow cytometry, RNA sequencing, protein arrays, culture assays, and spatial tissue characterization. This revealed disease-specific enrichment of immune cells with pronounced differences in proportional abundance of tissue-resident microglia, infiltrating monocyte-derived macrophages, neutrophils, and T cells.”
“These integrated analyses also uncovered multifaceted immune cell activation within brain malignancies entailing converging transcriptional trajectories while maintaining disease- and cell-type-specific programs. Given the interest in developing TME-targeted therapies for brain malignancies, this comprehensive resource of the immune landscape offers insights into possible strategies to overcome tumor-supporting TME properties and instead harness the TME to fight cancer.”…..
