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Pathology Grand Rounds, January 25, 2024 - Ignacio I. Wistuba, MD

January 31, 2024
  • 00:06Good afternoon, everyone.
  • 00:07Thank you so much for coming.
  • 00:10I'm very excited about our,
  • 00:12about our speaker today and
  • 00:14it's my great honor to actually
  • 00:17introduce Doctor Ignacio Bisuba.
  • 00:20He told me just to call him Ignacio.
  • 00:22We know each other for some time now.
  • 00:24Yeah, it was really 180 pages long CV.
  • 00:28So I'll try to put it in
  • 00:30like 3 minutes, 4 minutes.
  • 00:32So actually he can speak to us
  • 00:34about his wonderful research.
  • 00:35So Doctor Ristuba is currently Professor
  • 00:37and chair of the Department of Translation,
  • 00:40Molecular Pathology at the
  • 00:43MD Anderson Cancer Center.
  • 00:46He's also has a junk appointments
  • 00:48as a professor at the Department
  • 00:50of Thoracic Head and Neck Medical
  • 00:52Oncology and he's Co Director of
  • 00:54Division of Pathology Lab Medicine.
  • 00:56He started his career in
  • 00:58a medical school in Chile.
  • 01:00And actually I think Kurt and doctor we
  • 01:03still announced each other from back then.
  • 01:05So which is wonderful he did his
  • 01:09pathology training in Chile.
  • 01:11Then he did his post doctoral
  • 01:15pathology research at UT Southwestern
  • 01:18Medical Center and Hammond Center for
  • 01:22Therapeutic Oncology Research Center,
  • 01:23also at UT Southwestern.
  • 01:25He was boarded in Anatomic Pathology in 1989.
  • 01:31He had the numerous academic and
  • 01:33administrative appointments,
  • 01:34and I'll just briefly go through these.
  • 01:37He started actually his career
  • 01:38as assistant professor up to
  • 01:40associate professor in Chile,
  • 01:42Catholic University of Chile, Santiago.
  • 01:44And then in 2003, actually,
  • 01:48he moved to MD Anderson,
  • 01:50where he was associate professor until 2008.
  • 01:53And in 2008 he became a
  • 01:55professor of pathology.
  • 01:59In terms of like his
  • 02:01administrative responsibilities,
  • 02:02there are numerous leadership positions.
  • 02:05So I highlight just a few of those.
  • 02:08He was a director of the Utilonga SPORT,
  • 02:11Tissue Banker,
  • 02:12director of Thoracic Molecular pathology,
  • 02:15also at MD Anderson.
  • 02:17Up till now actually he was Co
  • 02:20director of the Cancer Center,
  • 02:22supportive grant Co director of
  • 02:24the molecular testing development.
  • 02:26And I think I'm going to stop here, Ignacio.
  • 02:28It's really long list.
  • 02:30It's absolutely impressive.
  • 02:33And he also had endowment positions,
  • 02:36numerous 'cause consultations
  • 02:42over 800 publications.
  • 02:44Your CVS from September,
  • 02:45I guess you're probably 1000 right now.
  • 02:47With that pace and numerous awards,
  • 02:51he received Pathology Residency
  • 02:53Scholarship award in Chile
  • 02:56Fogarty Foundation Fellowship.
  • 02:58He also received the Mary Matthews
  • 03:01Pathology Translational Research Award
  • 03:04from the International Association
  • 03:05for the Study of Lung Cancer in 2018.
  • 03:09At the same year he received the the
  • 03:11the award from the Latin American
  • 03:14Federation of Cancer Society's Award
  • 03:17for Supporting Latin American Oncology.
  • 03:20I had the privilege to work with
  • 03:23Ignacio as a member of the ICLC
  • 03:26Pathology Committee when he was a chair.
  • 03:29We were members before them but then
  • 03:31he was a chair and he absolutely
  • 03:33changed the entire committee,
  • 03:35made it actually the most productive
  • 03:37committee of the ICLC.
  • 03:39And he's one of those natural born
  • 03:42leaders with great administrative skills,
  • 03:44great research skills and also
  • 03:46he's still pathologist.
  • 03:48I know that he can read the slides.
  • 03:50So Ignacio, welcome.
  • 03:50We are very happy to have you
  • 03:53here. Thank you very much. Thank you,
  • 03:54Sanjay. Thank you Doctor Basic and Doctor
  • 03:56Liu for the kind invitation to be here again.
  • 04:00I come to institution on a regular basis
  • 04:03because I I have a collaborations and
  • 04:06part of advisory war of the Yale Lancaster
  • 04:10sport program and congratulations
  • 04:11I heard that was submitted finally
  • 04:14today and and now I mean I add to
  • 04:17the list of friends Sandra here.
  • 04:20So it's a pleasure to be speaking
  • 04:22to all to you all. So yeah,
  • 04:25it's a little bit embarrassing hearing about
  • 04:28what you what you have to put in your CV.
  • 04:31Sorry about that.
  • 04:32I'm just being that I'm old, right.
  • 04:35So and and the other thing is
  • 04:38that sorry about the very generic
  • 04:40title that I use for every, every,
  • 04:43every invitation to speak and then I
  • 04:44change it to make it more relevant,
  • 04:46but I forgot to do this time.
  • 04:48What I'm going to talk today is about
  • 04:52using strategies to study immune
  • 04:54response in tumor tissues with emphasis
  • 04:57on Multiplex assays to understand
  • 04:59the immune response with a focus on
  • 05:02a spatial analysis that we have in
  • 05:05exploring our group for the last few years.
  • 05:07So these are my disclosures,
  • 05:09ground support Advisory Board speaker
  • 05:12engagement and also the other you know,
  • 05:15important disclosures that I'm not
  • 05:17an immunologist.
  • 05:18So when I talk about immune markers,
  • 05:20but if if you have a difficult
  • 05:23question immunology,
  • 05:24I'm going to refer them to court.
  • 05:26Thank you for coming.
  • 05:28So
  • 05:31so I mean if you have been in touch with
  • 05:34this happening pathology for lung cancer
  • 05:37particularly in the diagnostic field
  • 05:39including molecular pathology tools.
  • 05:41You have seen this evolution from
  • 05:44Histology based diagnosis to molecular
  • 05:47targeted some classification in
  • 05:49particular the Lenocarcinoma, mystology,
  • 05:51the non sponsor lung cancer area and and
  • 05:54then and then there is a has been a lot,
  • 05:57a lot of hope on more biomarker can
  • 06:01predict response to immunotherapy
  • 06:02particularly the use of immune checkpoints.
  • 06:05But we're kind of stuck there
  • 06:07with a few markers mostly PDL one
  • 06:10in most of chemical expression.
  • 06:12But there is a also a new wave of therapy,
  • 06:15the antibody drugs conjugate that
  • 06:17actually may require the assessment
  • 06:19of protein expression in tumor.
  • 06:20So this is a very kind of brief
  • 06:24description of the evolution of the
  • 06:27field of diagnosis in lung cancer
  • 06:29that makes this disease very exciting.
  • 06:32And I've been there from the beginning
  • 06:35and and I've been able to watch this
  • 06:38by working at the same time this
  • 06:40evolution and this is slide that I put
  • 06:42the paradigms in evolution lung cancer,
  • 06:44molecular pathology.
  • 06:45I'm running out of space now
  • 06:47I'm just reducing the font.
  • 06:48So Histology is the key you know component
  • 06:52of every good diagnosis in this disease.
  • 06:55But we have a targeted therapy
  • 06:57and so we we studied driver by
  • 07:00molecular analysis of tissue cells,
  • 07:02cytology specimens and also have the liquid
  • 07:05biopsy opportunities on immunotherapy.
  • 07:07Unfortunately we don't have a large
  • 07:10number of solid predictive biomarkers.
  • 07:12So there is a lot of effort in this
  • 07:16area and I'm going to show you some
  • 07:17of the work that we are trying.
  • 07:18We're doing that field.
  • 07:20Then many of the new therapy particularly
  • 07:24immunotherapy related approaches
  • 07:27have been moved from stage 4 advanced
  • 07:31disease sometimes refractory disease
  • 07:34to earlier disease patient with tumor
  • 07:37that can be resected surgically with
  • 07:40creative intent stage one and three.
  • 07:42And then therapy has been given before
  • 07:45that recession is called new value of
  • 07:48therapy and that actually put pathology
  • 07:50again in a good position because the
  • 07:52assessment of response after this
  • 07:54therapy when the tumor resect is important.
  • 07:56And Doctor DASI has LED several of
  • 07:59these studies having recently published
  • 08:01on assessing pathological response
  • 08:03and then we have the opportunity to
  • 08:06potentially follow patient with a
  • 08:07liquid biopsy approaches to assess
  • 08:09minimal residual disease to understand
  • 08:11you know patient records.
  • 08:13They already mentioned the biomarker
  • 08:15for the drug conjugate.
  • 08:16But for this kind kind of revolutionizing
  • 08:20a little bit our assays,
  • 08:23assays on biomarker particularly
  • 08:24the immune space is the opportunity
  • 08:28to apply computational pathology
  • 08:30analysis to our immune base,
  • 08:34characterize tissue based characterization
  • 08:36of the immune response and then
  • 08:39I'm going to talk about that.
  • 08:41So these are the two areas that
  • 08:43I'm going to cover.
  • 08:44And as I already mentioned you know
  • 08:46we in pathology particularly in
  • 08:47advanced disease we have a very kind
  • 08:50of defined workflow what's needed for
  • 08:52the diagnosis starting with Histology,
  • 08:54molecular you know assessment of key
  • 08:58genomic and normality,
  • 08:59some PD L wading muscle chemistry for
  • 09:02for all the changes and opportunities
  • 09:04in immunotherapy considering
  • 09:06immune checkpoint inhibition in
  • 09:08combination or in combination with
  • 09:10other drugs like chemotherapy or
  • 09:13a cell therapy or even vaccines.
  • 09:16Approaches are coming up again.
  • 09:18I think they're having just one by a
  • 09:20market for predicting response is very,
  • 09:22very, very dismant and the field
  • 09:25is big and I know that several
  • 09:28of you may have immunology,
  • 09:30immunology training is a is is a
  • 09:32is a lot going on in the immune
  • 09:35response particular to a tumor
  • 09:37without intervention changes.
  • 09:39When you do intervention with immune
  • 09:42modulators or with any other therapy,
  • 09:45chemotherapy, biotherapy,
  • 09:46they change the immune response in tumors.
  • 09:50And there are a series of biomarker
  • 09:52that have been proposed that are part of
  • 09:55the intrinsic characteristic of the tumor,
  • 09:57many of them genome,
  • 09:59genome,
  • 09:59genomic normality is the tumor or
  • 10:02associated to the immune response
  • 10:04that are extensive predictor that
  • 10:06have been considered associated
  • 10:08potential with benefit or with
  • 10:11resistant to our therapies mostly
  • 10:13immune checkpoint therapy.
  • 10:14So we need biomarkers and there's
  • 10:17a crowded space here on different
  • 10:21opportunities and but this in my
  • 10:23bias of pathology I think that I
  • 10:25would have done with genomic that
  • 10:27we started characterizing tumors and
  • 10:30then we know what we need to look for.
  • 10:32We can go to liquid biases and
  • 10:34trying to identify these biomarkers.
  • 10:36I think that then the same paradigm
  • 10:40needs to be replicated in in in
  • 10:43immunotherapy understand what is
  • 10:45the work play of the book play of
  • 10:48immune response with and without
  • 10:50intervention hopefully on log you
  • 10:52doing on basis in the tumor tissue
  • 10:55in the context of immunotherapy
  • 10:56when we learn that we can see we can
  • 10:59identify those cells, those proteins,
  • 11:02those even genomic abnormalities
  • 11:05in surrogate specimen like blood
  • 11:08a sample that we get easily in
  • 11:11every clinical trial.
  • 11:12So all these prompted to pathology
  • 11:15translational research team that we
  • 11:18are actually working very heavily on
  • 11:21the molecular targeted area to try to
  • 11:24understand and learn about immunology,
  • 11:27immunology of cancer.
  • 11:28So we tried to adopt A new technology
  • 11:31to study chemokine cytokine growth
  • 11:34factor in in fluids try to you
  • 11:37know identify the immune cells into
  • 11:40more or peripheral blood or other
  • 11:43fluids with different immunology
  • 11:45immunology techniques for cytometry
  • 11:47site of and try to add to the genomic
  • 11:51characterization of the tissue
  • 11:52immune characterization And then
  • 11:54we can use some genomic approaches
  • 11:57there to get close to that.
  • 12:00We can disaggregate tissues and do
  • 12:02for cytometry site of but use lose
  • 12:05the context of the tissues trauma
  • 12:07malignant cells blood vessels and
  • 12:11other the structure the structure
  • 12:13that could be there by.
  • 12:15So then the analysis of tissue
  • 12:18sections we think is important and
  • 12:21then we can adopt from starting
  • 12:25with a single Plex immunochemistry
  • 12:29with rigor of because that could
  • 12:32be a problematic sometime.
  • 12:35The immunochemistry is it has to be
  • 12:38well done moved from a single to a
  • 12:42uniplex A monochemistry to a Multiplex
  • 12:45approaches to kind of not only quantify
  • 12:49cells that characterize well those
  • 12:52cells and and and actually locate
  • 12:54them in the structure of the tumor.
  • 12:57And then further in the analysis
  • 12:59to see the relationship of
  • 13:01specific suburblation cell to the
  • 13:04malignant cell and to each other.
  • 13:07And that's actually the evolution
  • 13:08from automated from immunos to
  • 13:11chemistry to Multiplex incorporating
  • 13:13image analysis and spatial analysis.
  • 13:16And these are two faculty in our
  • 13:19department of Edwin Para and Luisa Solis
  • 13:21who have instrumental over the years to
  • 13:24develops a similar Multiplex approaches.
  • 13:27We started after testing similar system
  • 13:31adopting the the system called those
  • 13:34days Vectra now is Polaris that have a
  • 13:38very strong chemistry for a multiplexing
  • 13:41different antibodies in tissue.
  • 13:43Now I think that they can do up to
  • 13:459 different antibodies where we save
  • 13:49one spot for the nuclear staining
  • 13:54ADAPI and it's important as I said
  • 13:58to validate these Multiplex very,
  • 14:00very carefully with single Plex
  • 14:03monochemistry followed by single
  • 14:05Plex immuno fluorescent and then put
  • 14:08it in combination in the sequence
  • 14:10that you find best result.
  • 14:12We have done this over the last seven years,
  • 14:16a year.
  • 14:16We have over 30 panels that
  • 14:18will have developed,
  • 14:20but the panel that will have used
  • 14:21the most are the two initial panels.
  • 14:23I'm going to describe briefly because
  • 14:25I'm going to show some data in lung
  • 14:28cancer cohort with this spanning one
  • 14:30that they define it usually speedy
  • 14:331PD1 centric because we look for
  • 14:35the expression of the markers in
  • 14:38malignant cells characterized by
  • 14:40Pancytokeratene and we have some
  • 14:42other T cells and macrophage marker,
  • 14:45very basic markers.
  • 14:46And then the second panel is a panel
  • 14:49that we explore a little bit more the
  • 14:51T cell population of cells and we
  • 14:53keeping you know the pancytokeratine.
  • 14:59So of course like you have done here,
  • 15:02we have explore some other Multiplex
  • 15:06approaches that could be more suitable
  • 15:09for discovery approaches in this field
  • 15:12that can go to up to 4060 markers,
  • 15:15explore the imaging mass
  • 15:18cytometry Iperion site of system.
  • 15:21We have a 35 markers panel that
  • 15:23we have run in some projects.
  • 15:25We have actually working actively
  • 15:27with colleagues and now it's called
  • 15:30Phenocycler fusion that we have a panel
  • 15:32of 33 markers and we are very actively
  • 15:35working with something called Nanoting
  • 15:37GMX that you can do also for the panels.
  • 15:41Some of these are fluorescent based,
  • 15:43some of these are mass spec based.
  • 15:45I'm not going to talk about that
  • 15:47and maybe because we got one,
  • 15:49it's not working.
  • 15:51So then of course everybody's
  • 15:54excited with the opportunity to do
  • 15:56transcriptome analysis in tissues.
  • 15:58I'm talking about formally fixed paraffin
  • 16:01embedded specimens and add the special
  • 16:03transcript official analysis of it.
  • 16:05So this is something that we are doing
  • 16:07and I'm going to show any data about that.
  • 16:09And all these actually effort of
  • 16:13characterizing the immune response
  • 16:15in tissue specimens is has been
  • 16:18very much enhanced for with the use
  • 16:22of computational pathology tools.
  • 16:24And I know that everybody likes
  • 16:25to talk about AI,
  • 16:26people jump to it very easily.
  • 16:28I I think for pathologists,
  • 16:30we have a process here which is
  • 16:32actually digital pathology scan
  • 16:33stuff and scan them well, right.
  • 16:35And there are challenges there that
  • 16:38are not trivial then do image analysis,
  • 16:41right.
  • 16:42That's the next step and then
  • 16:44learn from that,
  • 16:45that's the machine learning and
  • 16:46then you can start talking about
  • 16:48the AI and this concept.
  • 16:49Computational pathology has been very
  • 16:51useful because we as pathologists
  • 16:55are very good and they have been
  • 16:57shown many times to identify
  • 16:59expression of markers and with
  • 17:01chromogenic immunostock energy that
  • 17:02they are locating the nucleus,
  • 17:04they're locating them in the membrane.
  • 17:06The cytoplasm or a combination in
  • 17:08Malina cells have a good eye for that,
  • 17:11especially the large cells like carcinomas.
  • 17:14But it's a challenge to identify
  • 17:16those markers when they express in
  • 17:19immune cells that you see as the
  • 17:21dot and you don't know what type of
  • 17:23immune cell even some macrophages are
  • 17:25challenging sometime the middle of
  • 17:26the tumor is you don't know if it's
  • 17:29the malignant sort of macrophage.
  • 17:30So in that and also quantify that is
  • 17:33very subjective and there are data
  • 17:36that actually with David published
  • 17:38on that right and I just remember
  • 17:40I should have put the slide on it.
  • 17:42How about we are quantifying immune
  • 17:45self expressing the PDL one right
  • 17:48and that good on the malignant side.
  • 17:50So that's why computation I mean
  • 17:53digital pathology and computational
  • 17:54approach are very useful and and and
  • 17:57this is also a way to interrogate
  • 17:59the issue to understand the biology
  • 18:01in this case you know transcript
  • 18:02immunology and and people are using
  • 18:04the same for transcriptomics.
  • 18:06So in this case you can use them
  • 18:08to quantify
  • 18:09to study compartment heterogeneity
  • 18:12and then the locations and the
  • 18:16location compared to targets or
  • 18:18other cells cell interaction.
  • 18:20So now this is the introduction.
  • 18:23So I'm doing OK,
  • 18:27I'm going to give you.
  • 18:29So I work, I started working lung
  • 18:31cancer and I'm getting all the
  • 18:34goals and telling all the stories.
  • 18:36But when working on pathogenesial lung
  • 18:38cancer what is the origin of cancer
  • 18:40is what is the prunoplastic lesion
  • 18:42that actually matter or pre Malinas in
  • 18:45the matter to develop small cell lung
  • 18:47cancer or non small cell lung cancer.
  • 18:49So I have very strong still
  • 18:53association and collaboration in
  • 18:54the early pathogenic lung cancer,
  • 18:57but you know working in lung in in in
  • 18:59the Cancer Center that MD Anderson we
  • 19:02all most of our research try to focus
  • 19:05initially in advanced metastatic disease.
  • 19:07So we see patients with stage 4 and cancer
  • 19:10and we do clinical trials and research,
  • 19:13translational research in that setting
  • 19:16and even worse it was worse before
  • 19:18we did it mostly in their factory
  • 19:21patient that failed chemotherapy.
  • 19:23So and and I'm actually so happy that many
  • 19:25of these therapies I mentioned earlier
  • 19:27are moving to the new adjuvant space.
  • 19:30So you can see you can do more
  • 19:32studies of resected tumor that have
  • 19:34been treated with different therapy.
  • 19:37So, so and and and I I like to show that
  • 19:40the progression of lung cancer is also
  • 19:43an opportunity to to bring discoveries
  • 19:45on molecular pathology or biomarkers
  • 19:48across the spectrum of the disease.
  • 19:51There are people who are doing chemo
  • 19:53prevention with immune checkpoints
  • 19:54in lung cancer to small novels,
  • 19:56right.
  • 19:56So whatever we learn on advanced
  • 19:59metastatic could be also or resected
  • 20:02tumor could be important to.
  • 20:05Study premalignant or low malignancy
  • 20:07lesions that could progress or not.
  • 20:11So the first example is going to be
  • 20:14actually about some immune analysis of
  • 20:17tissues that have these premalignancy
  • 20:21or low grain malignancy characteristics.
  • 20:24And this is study that was published
  • 20:27in Nature Communication 2021 that
  • 20:29they started with Doctor Dejima,
  • 20:31A pathologist from Japan who visited
  • 20:33for three years and was finished
  • 20:35by Doctor Jay Sang,
  • 20:36the faculty interested maker oncology.
  • 20:39And in this one we collected specimen
  • 20:42from Japan that had these atypical
  • 20:44adenomatosaparplasia that is believed
  • 20:46to be the precursor of at least a
  • 20:50substance or lung adenocarcinoma.
  • 20:52We have a few adenocarcinoma inside
  • 20:54that means malignant cells that are
  • 20:57not inviting invading which is but
  • 20:59invasion is a is a controversial
  • 21:01topic in in Langa carcinoma but
  • 21:03we thought that we had inside the
  • 21:06lesions and we have micro invasive
  • 21:08carcinomas and then invasive carcinoma.
  • 21:10This is small number,
  • 21:11but we decided to do this is to do
  • 21:14a kind of a kind of comprehensive
  • 21:16approach based on different technology
  • 21:18that we work in these formally fixed
  • 21:21paraffin and visited small lesions.
  • 21:23We run an RNA expression using a mono
  • 21:27oncology panel of 100 and 77170 genes.
  • 21:30From nanostream we run multiplexing
  • 21:33monoforescence,
  • 21:33the two panel that already mentioned
  • 21:36PD1PD1 and T cells TCR SYNC sequencing
  • 21:39call it some sequencing of global
  • 21:42methylation and basically just to
  • 21:45give you the summary of the result.
  • 21:47So what we found is that when
  • 21:50we increase on
  • 21:51the malignant potential or
  • 21:53malignancy future of these lesions,
  • 21:56we found that RNA level studying
  • 21:59these immune related genes,
  • 22:01we saw an increase in later stages
  • 22:04this progression of increase of
  • 22:07immunosuppressor gene status with
  • 22:09the decrease of immune activation.
  • 22:11The maximum number of Cytodoxy T cell that
  • 22:14we found was in the adjacent normal tissue.
  • 22:17These are big patients that may have
  • 22:19been supposed to tobacco and had some
  • 22:22COPD features and this actually with
  • 22:25timer deconvolution of the RNA data.
  • 22:28We thought that would identify CD40
  • 22:30lymphocyte that were increasing that could
  • 22:33be related to these immunosuppressive
  • 22:35genes state and we thought that our
  • 22:38direct cells we could improve it.
  • 22:40That's why we ran the Multiplex multiple
  • 22:42for Essence show you the next slide.
  • 22:44We found an increase in the density
  • 22:47and diversity by reviews on coronality
  • 22:49of the T cells that were expanding.
  • 22:51And also we saw as expected increased
  • 22:54copy number changes allelic imbalance
  • 22:58which is a reflection of loss of the
  • 23:00residosity and increase on new antigen.
  • 23:03And what we saw in the later stages
  • 23:05in the micro invasive and carcinoma,
  • 23:07a higher frequency HLA loss of the
  • 23:10residosity that could associate with
  • 23:13these can reduce of immune activation
  • 23:16and increase of immune repression.
  • 23:18So this Malina cell could escape
  • 23:21the immune system. We can base it.
  • 23:24The multiplexing Monoporesia actually
  • 23:26confirmed that we saw an increase
  • 23:28of direct cells and a reduction
  • 23:30of cytotoxicity cells and this
  • 23:31is going to go to,
  • 23:33sorry to this slide in which actually
  • 23:37we are not cannot show you the details,
  • 23:39but actually it shows this an example
  • 23:42of the increase of the direct cells and
  • 23:45decrease of Cytotox activated these cells
  • 23:48and and this is the data showing reduce
  • 23:52on clinality and increase in diversity.
  • 23:55So all these show very early on
  • 23:58this stage in the transformation of
  • 24:00the South that is associated with
  • 24:03an immune response from the coast.
  • 24:06But then you lose and some suppressor
  • 24:09mechanisms trigger in and may explain more
  • 24:12other things the progression of this lesion.
  • 24:14And actually this is the work that
  • 24:16have been doing over the years.
  • 24:18And then we actually added to the
  • 24:22genomic findings that we're ready,
  • 24:23we're aware the mechanisms of the
  • 24:28role of immune response in the
  • 24:30evolution of these lesions.
  • 24:32So now I'm going to give you a couple
  • 24:34of examples of projects that we have
  • 24:35done in surgical resected tumor,
  • 24:37non small cell lung cancer stages,
  • 24:39one and two in these cases usually
  • 24:42is they have not been treated with
  • 24:44a therapy before the resection.
  • 24:47It's hard to have a clinical endpoint and
  • 24:49the clinical endpoint is outcome of the page,
  • 24:51right.
  • 24:52So when I refer to recurrent
  • 24:54free survival or overall survival
  • 24:56after resection as a an outcome,
  • 24:59you know comparing the findings
  • 25:02on the immune response that we did
  • 25:04the study that we did.
  • 25:05But before that when we developed
  • 25:08this Multiplex assay and lung cancer,
  • 25:11we're looking for proof of principle
  • 25:13study something that we
  • 25:14can show that we are finding something
  • 25:17that's can correlate with the clinical
  • 25:19status of the patient and people
  • 25:21have been talking and they have been
  • 25:23shown that chemotherapy induced
  • 25:25immune response in tumor by trying
  • 25:28cells you know and the antigens are
  • 25:30are available to the immune system
  • 25:33that's elicit the immune response.
  • 25:35So but nobody has shown that and it's
  • 25:37hard to get biopsies from patient
  • 25:39before and after chemotherapy.
  • 25:41So we did with these two panels again
  • 25:45PD1PD1 centric, T cells centric,
  • 25:50we studied 61 chemo naive cases,
  • 25:53surgical resected non small cell cancer,
  • 25:55they were not exposed to any therapy
  • 25:58versus 51 were controlled by a sex story
  • 26:02and so on 51 treated with chemotherapy,
  • 26:05platinum based therapy and
  • 26:06we found what was suspected.
  • 26:08So we see activated,
  • 26:10we see more T cells,
  • 26:12memory cells,
  • 26:13cells with exposure to antigens
  • 26:16higher in the one the patient
  • 26:19that have received chemotherapy
  • 26:20and also we saw an activation and
  • 26:23increase of PDL one expression.
  • 26:25So it was published in 2018 by Doctor
  • 26:28Parry in journal of in in monology.
  • 26:33So then we haven't been applying
  • 26:35these to actually your new argument
  • 26:37trials in which patients have
  • 26:40received immune checkpoint therapy,
  • 26:41single agent in combination
  • 26:43or weak chemotherapy.
  • 26:44I know when I show enough of the
  • 26:46data and we haven't discovered
  • 26:47anything exciting by doing the
  • 26:49study but we have shown what people
  • 26:51expect and this is an example.
  • 26:52This is a new argument trial running
  • 26:55in in our institution in the Anderson
  • 26:59which they compare in patients use of
  • 27:02anti PD1 ebolumab with the combination
  • 27:04of drug nivolumab and epidumab.
  • 27:06Anti PD one acid DA four and and we
  • 27:10show by multiplexing monoparesin
  • 27:11using the similar patterns that
  • 27:13when they add the second drug
  • 27:15the anti CDA 4 to anti PD one.
  • 27:18Actually they see a more mounting
  • 27:20a more robust immune response
  • 27:23based on T cells activation mostly
  • 27:26in the treated in the patient
  • 27:29that received this treatment.
  • 27:31And this was along with some other tests
  • 27:33done in the peripheral blood of the patient.
  • 27:35So this is something that we have done
  • 27:38in in in at least four or five illegal
  • 27:41trials to contribute to validate
  • 27:43some of the findings that people
  • 27:45have with other immunology tools.
  • 27:47But they haven't been actually
  • 27:49discovered by themselves and it's
  • 27:51very hard to discover in my opinion
  • 27:53with a limited number of panels.
  • 27:54I think that you need to go
  • 27:57with use higher multiplexes.
  • 27:59This is a nice story,
  • 28:01very brief that we published in
  • 28:042018 in John after a psychology
  • 28:08and we're using classic
  • 28:10chromogenic immunothochemic.
  • 28:11We decided to start studying on
  • 28:13top of PDL 1 immune checkpoint
  • 28:15others and we have eight others.
  • 28:18You know you can see the 7384 either
  • 28:21one ICOS Vista like what like 3 of
  • 28:2540 at team three and the reason
  • 28:29was is I was thinking is is is what
  • 28:32is the chances that lung cancer
  • 28:35tumor express more of one of these
  • 28:38immune checkpoints in which level
  • 28:42and is that opening opportunity for
  • 28:45combination and this is and and how
  • 28:47we can also learn about studying
  • 28:49these immune checkpoints some of
  • 28:51them expressed in malignant cells
  • 28:53only most of them expressed in
  • 28:55malignant cell immune cells some of
  • 28:57them expressed only in immune cells.
  • 28:59It's very hard to quantify but
  • 29:00we did it with digital pathology.
  • 29:03I mean analysis in 184 non small
  • 29:05cell and cancer adenocarcinoma
  • 29:07squamous or carcinoma and this
  • 29:13heat map showed the the data that we
  • 29:17found and we don't we don't what is
  • 29:20consider PL-1 positive in lung cancer.
  • 29:23So we put the cases from higher to lower
  • 29:25based on the percent of malignant cell
  • 29:27express in it and then the other markers
  • 29:30in the malignant cells on the tumor
  • 29:32associated immune cell are presented as
  • 29:34higher than the median for the cohort.
  • 29:37I don't know who squam because we don't know
  • 29:39what slack 3 positive and immune cell is.
  • 29:42So and we did that and you can see that they
  • 29:45given two more have many of these markers
  • 29:48higher than the median that cohort positive.
  • 29:51So it's it's a very complex environment
  • 29:53and with there are many of these
  • 29:56immune checkpoint play potential role.
  • 29:58So I think that we're very lucky
  • 30:00we have to PD1 and PD1.
  • 30:02I don't think we haven't been
  • 30:04very lucky with others.
  • 30:05And I think because there is complexity on at
  • 30:08least on the immune checkpoint perspective,
  • 30:10there's other complexity on the cells.
  • 30:13So then we put all these markers in
  • 30:16multiplexing monoforous and it was published
  • 30:18in Nature Communication 2020 through.
  • 30:20It's a paper with a lot of data,
  • 30:22but not a clear story because
  • 30:26we couldn't find anything that
  • 30:28could be called a discovery.
  • 30:30And I know that we're doing a lot of
  • 30:32spatial analysis now and I hope we can
  • 30:34make more contribution with this data,
  • 30:36but we decided to publish anyway
  • 30:39to make it available.
  • 30:40And what we've found is we put
  • 30:43all those T cells,
  • 30:45macrophages,
  • 30:46malignant cells markers together in
  • 30:50five panels including Myelo cells
  • 30:52and and then you put all these immune
  • 30:56checkpoints in the panel and we did this in,
  • 31:00in,
  • 31:00in in 225 non small cell lung cancer cases,
  • 31:06142 I don't know 83 squamous cell carcinoma,
  • 31:08we always separate,
  • 31:09there are two different diseases for
  • 31:11me so for for many and so I will
  • 31:14look at differently and what we found
  • 31:16it's a lot of Co expression and I
  • 31:19think that this also Co expression
  • 31:21based on data that I've done in other
  • 31:23diseases or you're doing all vibes,
  • 31:25it's change over time chain with
  • 31:28tubal progression and chain with
  • 31:30intervention and and here you can
  • 31:33see that marker by marker.
  • 31:34They are associated with other
  • 31:36market very frequently.
  • 31:37I said it's a high level of Co expression
  • 31:40of these immune checkpoint in T cells,
  • 31:42Mylo cells,
  • 31:43even in B cells and this is highly
  • 31:46heterogeneous in tumor.
  • 31:47In A tumor you see areas that their
  • 31:50expression of certain immune checkpoints
  • 31:52combined with areas that are others.
  • 31:54So it's highly heterogeneous.
  • 31:57There is a high level of
  • 31:59these immune checkpoints,
  • 32:01some of them with inhibitory
  • 32:03stimulatory features.
  • 32:04It's complex it's complex so and it's
  • 32:07different between Adam and squam across
  • 32:09you know that's not a big discovery.
  • 32:11So if you are interested in this
  • 32:13data this could be available to
  • 32:14somebody doing more spatial we
  • 32:16did some spatial analysis.
  • 32:17This is the first
  • 32:19time that actually we
  • 32:20did we published on this.
  • 32:22We follow up with another paper I'll
  • 32:24show you in a minute that we we focus
  • 32:27on spatial analysis and we found that
  • 32:30some markers we we define two two
  • 32:33ways to study especially the we have
  • 32:36two approaches to study the the the
  • 32:39facial distribution of immune cells in tumor.
  • 32:41One is by infiltration there
  • 32:44are some index called G index,
  • 32:46what is the level of infiltration of cells
  • 32:50in looking at you know the tumor compartment,
  • 32:52the malignant cell and the other is
  • 32:54the distance of these cells of interest
  • 32:57with malignant cells or with the others.
  • 32:59So that's the two ways and in this
  • 33:02study we found that if one markers
  • 33:05of obscure market for me probably
  • 33:07makes a lot more sense for you.
  • 33:09It's a my love a neutrophil related
  • 33:12marker that when we have more infiltrated
  • 33:15a pattern close to the malignant cells
  • 33:17associated with product with better
  • 33:19overall survival in these patients.
  • 33:21And this is adjusted by proper
  • 33:24characteristic multivariate analysis
  • 33:26and and then so we found that this
  • 33:29more easier for me to understand that
  • 33:32T cells and and say the **** T cell
  • 33:37when now looking at the distance in
  • 33:40microns are closer to malignant cell
  • 33:42those patients have a better outcome
  • 33:45and based on overall survival the
  • 33:47same we found for 64 microphages
  • 33:50that basically CD 68 these are kind
  • 33:53of the first time that we actually
  • 33:55were doing this and learning how to
  • 33:57deal with this infiltration in this
  • 33:59and and and then you know distance
  • 34:03and this is study that was published
  • 34:06in modern pathology the same year
  • 34:08but later this study was designed to
  • 34:11address the intratumor heterogeneity
  • 34:13of immune response very small study
  • 34:16that with our all Multiplex pattern
  • 34:19one and two in which we take took 33
  • 34:23stage 1 lung Adeno garcinum wanted
  • 34:25I mean Adeno and squabous.
  • 34:27So dividing two-story wanted to control
  • 34:30and go to the cases that are part of
  • 34:33one stage of the disease and we divide
  • 34:36in two groups based on recurrence pattern.
  • 34:39They we call recurrence cases when they
  • 34:43recur within 36 months of after surgery
  • 34:4717 patients and the one that didn't
  • 34:50recurs is the one that after five year
  • 34:52follow up in having a recurrence right.
  • 34:54So if I didn't kind of extremes outcome
  • 34:57as much as we can we could and then we
  • 35:01took the tissue the malignant tissue,
  • 35:02the tumor we developed great system of
  • 35:051mm diameter in which we ran in each
  • 35:09of these spots corruption sequence
  • 35:11RNA sick and Multipleximolar forest.
  • 35:14The game the two panels that I showed
  • 35:16before when I show some of the data
  • 35:18on term of the immune infiltration
  • 35:20result but we found that the one that
  • 35:23recurred within this that this month
  • 35:26have and it's hard to see I'm sorry
  • 35:28about that is an increase of immune
  • 35:31cells that had either PD1 or PD1
  • 35:35expression with some we call inhibitory
  • 35:38mechanisms of the immune response.
  • 35:40Those cases tend to recur earlier or recur
  • 35:44because the other after five year they
  • 35:46didn't have any recurrence and this is
  • 35:48actually shown in this more you know graph
  • 35:51here and I cannot even see it myself.
  • 35:53But the the red are are the recurrence
  • 35:57and these are different subpopulation of
  • 36:00macrophages or AT salt express PD1 or PD1.
  • 36:03And also we saw that it was an increase
  • 36:08of macrophages compared to T cells in
  • 36:12this recurrence of the ratio between
  • 36:14T and T cells and macrophages was
  • 36:16lower in the recurrence.
  • 36:17So that's tell us there's immune
  • 36:21suppressive stage in these cases.
  • 36:23And then we decided to explore
  • 36:26these other features which is the
  • 36:28distance of immune cells and we found
  • 36:32two populations of immune cells,
  • 36:34one is cytotoxic T cells that are
  • 36:37activated and also these PO1 positive
  • 36:40macrophage decided to show you this is
  • 36:43that this PDL 1 positive macrophages that
  • 36:46you can assume have an immune suppressive
  • 36:49stage when they're closer to the tumor.
  • 36:52And I think that the the 20 Micron is
  • 36:55kind of the the the the number that
  • 36:58is is can divide these cases in closer
  • 37:01and higher when they're closer to
  • 37:04the tumor this actually this patient
  • 37:07have a worse outcome and this is also
  • 37:11associated with a higher level of
  • 37:13infiltration by the gene by other index.
  • 37:15So,
  • 37:16so both in usually both numbers goes
  • 37:20together and this is actually very
  • 37:23interesting and we're trying to
  • 37:25apply this process of infiltration
  • 37:27pattern with more sophisticated
  • 37:29computational tools now or distance to
  • 37:32other studies and I'll show you a few
  • 37:34minutes and experience in advancement
  • 37:37of starting of Molson and Gas.
  • 37:39The other thing is we we look at is
  • 37:42the heterogeneity in the tumor on,
  • 37:47on, on,
  • 37:48on,
  • 37:48on and the effect on on the outcome
  • 37:52of this patient.
  • 37:53And we have also some data on the genomic
  • 37:56heterogeneity and we have published before.
  • 37:59But this is trying to think on the
  • 38:01genomic and normality in the context of
  • 38:03the immune response shows some data.
  • 38:05What we found is that a very interesting
  • 38:08is that actually the Fox P3T cells,
  • 38:12the direct cells,
  • 38:13they tend to be more heterogeneous
  • 38:18in the recurrence cases.
  • 38:23So they're not diffusely infiltrating
  • 38:26a tumor,
  • 38:27they're in different spots and and
  • 38:29the key is expressed by frequency
  • 38:31and by an index of the regenetic,
  • 38:33I think that's Moriceta index of nine
  • 38:36compared to 3.4 in the northern currents.
  • 38:38So that means that more infiltrating
  • 38:41in in in in there sorry they're
  • 38:44not very much infiltration to do
  • 38:46more that are scarce around and and
  • 38:49this is actually associated with a
  • 38:52higher level of worse outcome And
  • 38:56this is what's independent of the
  • 38:59genomic alteration that we have like
  • 39:02somatic mutation antigen burden or
  • 39:04or or even the TCR repertoire.
  • 39:06So the T Rex when they're I,
  • 39:09I have a higher ITH is associated
  • 39:12with higher risk for last and then
  • 39:14when I think I got it wrong before
  • 39:17when they're actually in clusters far away
  • 39:19in in a few locations of the tumor is,
  • 39:22is is actually is, is, is is is the opposite.
  • 39:27So these are the studies that actually
  • 39:29we continue doing and I'm going to show
  • 39:32you some samples now in the advanced
  • 39:34metallic cases but summarize this,
  • 39:37this part of the lecture basically multiple
  • 39:39small Fraser I think that's a good tool.
  • 39:42We have shown that you know it's
  • 39:45associated with activation of T cells
  • 39:47and another immune cells in chemo treated
  • 39:50cases compared to untreated cases.
  • 39:52We have identified certain pattern
  • 39:56of infiltration at spatial level that
  • 39:58may be associated with the outcome
  • 40:01of patient without intervention have
  • 40:03shown that actually can show you in
  • 40:06tissue the fact of immune checkpoint
  • 40:08in the context of Ionia and therapy
  • 40:11and and there is a complex pattern
  • 40:14of expression of immune checkpoints
  • 40:16in in in in tissues especially when
  • 40:19you use all these multiple system.
  • 40:22And the last story is about
  • 40:25advanced metastatic cases.
  • 40:26And this is a study that actually is part
  • 40:29of a network that in the Anderson is,
  • 40:32is, is is one of the centers
  • 40:34is funded by NCI or the CMAC.
  • 40:36Some people call it SIMAC after seven-year.
  • 40:39We haven't been solving that.
  • 40:40I call it CMAC.
  • 40:41I was the chair of this network and they
  • 40:43have three other centers in Dana Farvez,
  • 40:46Mount Sinai and Stanford.
  • 40:48And the goal of the center is to perform
  • 40:52comprehensive analysis of a genomic and
  • 40:57and immune level of sample collecting
  • 41:00clinical trial funded by NCANCI network.
  • 41:03These serving groups like
  • 41:06SOAG ECO accring early,
  • 41:08early early therapy network pediatric
  • 41:11ILG and Alliance and and and what we
  • 41:14decided to do and this was activated
  • 41:17before COVID is to develop a series of
  • 41:20three set of marker or the assay that we
  • 41:22can apply to sample from these trials.
  • 41:25And the goal is to identify by a
  • 41:27market that could be predictive
  • 41:29or response or even some markets
  • 41:31associated to less secondary effect.
  • 41:33And and we established Tier 1 market
  • 41:35that we need to run in every single
  • 41:38sample from the clinical trial if
  • 41:40the sample is available or suitable.
  • 41:42That's one of the challenge in this
  • 41:44type of recent collection signal
  • 41:47RNA sig nano chain IO panel.
  • 41:49When RNA 6 doesn't work,
  • 41:51we have a lot of formally fixed parasitic
  • 41:53tissue that hadn't been processed well.
  • 41:55Unfortunately Cytof on a panel in
  • 41:58blood Multiplex immunochemistry or
  • 42:01immuno fluorescent tissue and single
  • 42:03Plex immunochemistry that means PL.
  • 42:06one and only which is a way to study
  • 42:09cytokine chemokine growth factor proteins
  • 42:11in serum with a bundle of 92 markers.
  • 42:15And then the Tier 2 assays more focus
  • 42:19analysis in some trial like TCR sequencing
  • 42:23or some other Multiplex system like
  • 42:25maybe and our microbiome this has
  • 42:27changed a little bit over the years.
  • 42:29And then the Tier 3 assay which
  • 42:32you need fresh specimen is a lot
  • 42:35of single cell sequencing activity.
  • 42:37And also we have done recently transcriptome,
  • 42:41special transcriptome we we face
  • 42:45activation of the network COVID hit.
  • 42:47We didn't have too many samples to analyze.
  • 42:49So what we did in the first two
  • 42:52years actually to harmonize these
  • 42:54assays between 3:00 or 4 labs.
  • 42:56So we harmonize RNAC or some sequencing
  • 42:59site of a Multiplex immuno frerescent.
  • 43:02Actually we developed SOP and that
  • 43:05are publicly available for people
  • 43:08to to do this work in the context
  • 43:11of immune profiling and and and
  • 43:13they're they published these three
  • 43:15papers back to acting as a region.
  • 43:17They have been highly cited and nobody
  • 43:20has done this before and actually help
  • 43:22us all the labs to do a better job and
  • 43:26we have a system of quality control
  • 43:28on ongoing assays that we're running.
  • 43:31They try the network.
  • 43:33We have done study more than
  • 43:35sampler for more than 55 clinical
  • 43:37trial and over 2000 patients.
  • 43:38This was from September last
  • 43:40year and many diseases,
  • 43:42solid tumor nouns and malignancies and mostly
  • 43:46immune checkpoint therapy with combination.
  • 43:49So we were lucky to get
  • 43:53assigned a lung cancer trial.
  • 43:54It's a phase three-part of the
  • 43:57lung map associated with salt,
  • 44:00the S 1400 eye cohort.
  • 44:02There was a phase three study
  • 44:04designed to see the benefit,
  • 44:08potential benefit of adding anti
  • 44:11CDLA 4 IPIL luma to anti PD,
  • 44:15one Ebola in patient with squamous
  • 44:19cell carcinoma metastatic.
  • 44:20So see the effect of the combination
  • 44:23versus single single agent.
  • 44:24So the trial after
  • 44:27270, 252 patients was negative
  • 44:29was but we and the investigator
  • 44:34including doctor herbs that he
  • 44:36asked me to mention his name.
  • 44:38So I did it check we're good
  • 44:41friends for many years.
  • 44:42So I can make these jobs
  • 44:45show that here at the end of the day
  • 44:47of the car you see there's a group
  • 44:49of patients that may have benefit of
  • 44:52receiving this but nothing was significant.
  • 44:54So this is we got, we do more and blood
  • 44:58sample 455 patients divided in a group of
  • 45:02responders across 20% stable disease 40%
  • 45:05and then a lot of progressive disease.
  • 45:09And these are the clinical data
  • 45:10that we're not going to go through.
  • 45:12And our team is CMAC actually LED analysis
  • 45:14of year one immunochemistry multiplexing,
  • 45:17mono fluorescent holoxome sequencing,
  • 45:19nanoching, the panel that I mentioned
  • 45:22before 770 genes and the all ink run
  • 45:25by our colleagues and Mount Simon.
  • 45:27So and and this is the 2 panel,
  • 45:29we we identify 17 phenotypes that
  • 45:31we're going to study divided in two
  • 45:34panels I mentioned before and what
  • 45:36we found is that few,
  • 45:37few things that are probably not new.
  • 45:40We found that it's a higher component
  • 45:43of immune cells trauma compared
  • 45:45to the malignant cells area.
  • 45:47We divided the the analysis
  • 45:49by trauma and malignant cells.
  • 45:52And also we have what we call total
  • 45:54when we combine both compartments.
  • 45:57And we didn't find a huge difference between
  • 46:03the single agent or the combination,
  • 46:07but we found in the total population
  • 46:09of patients that we could run
  • 46:12in multiple monoforensis.
  • 46:13You can see 82 samples only.
  • 46:15It's a big attrition EVI and 35 receiving
  • 46:18the combination of 47 single agent
  • 46:21that actually a series of T cells
  • 46:25activated expressing PD one or with
  • 46:29memory features in the tumor compartment,
  • 46:31the total compartment of
  • 46:33both compartment the tumor.
  • 46:35The higher density associated with a
  • 46:37progression of fee survival regardless
  • 46:40of the treatment of the patient in terms
  • 46:43of differences between these two treatments.
  • 46:46So what we found is that actually
  • 46:49when you have you will receive only
  • 46:51nivo treatment NTPD one the series
  • 46:54of T cell with memory features and
  • 46:57memory regulatory features overall
  • 46:59all associated with better outcome,
  • 47:02better operation fee survival for
  • 47:04three marker survival for one in the
  • 47:07nivo EP in the combination actually
  • 47:11the association of this the increase
  • 47:14of activate the cytloxy T cells and
  • 47:16explain T cell associated with better
  • 47:19outcome but the patient regulatory
  • 47:21T cells C3 poses the negative and
  • 47:24C positively positive associated
  • 47:26with worse outcome and this is shown
  • 47:28in here in the capital measure.
  • 47:31So we identify one group of cell
  • 47:33that I think that very interesting
  • 47:35to follow that associated when the
  • 47:38higher density of baseline with worst
  • 47:41outcome impatient to do with the
  • 47:43combination this particular tumor and
  • 47:45it's something that we're following
  • 47:46up because a similar study was run
  • 47:48in Italy by a friend Ferrigo Capuzzo
  • 47:52and he's sending samples asked for
  • 47:55to look at for this particular fine.
  • 47:58And I know that some people doing
  • 48:01work in the laboratory also have
  • 48:03been associated a role.
  • 48:05I've been looking at the role of
  • 48:07Tigre cells in the indeed this
  • 48:09particular combination of therapy
  • 48:11particularly in our institution.
  • 48:13So then we decided to look at
  • 48:16especially what's happening in the
  • 48:18with more digital pathology tools.
  • 48:20And for that in collaboration
  • 48:22with the clinical team,
  • 48:24we divided this patient treated and
  • 48:26you can see here in the swim plot,
  • 48:28you know each patient's online,
  • 48:30we define 11 patients that were
  • 48:32called exceptional responder.
  • 48:34I think that's not a good name,
  • 48:35but it's the name that we gave
  • 48:37it patient that didn't have any
  • 48:39sign of progression and were
  • 48:40alive any sign of progression.
  • 48:4218 months were alive at 24 and then the
  • 48:46early progress of people that actually
  • 48:48were alive after one month treatment
  • 48:51and they have signed a progression
  • 48:55of death or disease at six months.
  • 48:59And and then we'll look at these two,
  • 49:01unfortunately this is the problem with this
  • 49:04perspective analysis of clinical trials.
  • 49:06So I hope you have prospective
  • 49:09collection of samples,
  • 49:10so can do better job here.
  • 49:12Here our 11 exceptional responders 8.
  • 49:17Our 44 LE progressor 21 for the
  • 49:20Multiplex and we found actually
  • 49:23that activated T cells were higher
  • 49:26in the exceptional responders makes
  • 49:28sense right that's that's that's
  • 49:30interesting and it's not and and
  • 49:33and and and also we found that the
  • 49:35density of and and and and and of
  • 49:40other cells cytotoxicity cells,
  • 49:43cytotoxicity cell and cell with
  • 49:46memory features also where higher
  • 49:49exceptional respondents.
  • 49:50So in the way that we were looking
  • 49:53to data that actually makes sense
  • 49:56and then we decided to go a little
  • 49:58bit further on the analysis of the
  • 50:00special data and the animation was not right.
  • 50:03And we look at now the infiltration pattern
  • 50:07with the more sophisticated cell clustering,
  • 50:10base cell clustering is is what
  • 50:13defined like at least 10 cells or
  • 50:15more that are located in a 20 microns
  • 50:19radio from the malignant cells.
  • 50:22And and this was actually show that
  • 50:24in the exception responder here one
  • 50:26case in blue and trying to show that
  • 50:28they have more dots that the early
  • 50:31progress of the word called tumor.
  • 50:32And this is based on the cell
  • 50:35clustering base analysis.
  • 50:36So showing that not only the density
  • 50:41but also the infiltration pattern not
  • 50:44the actual number cells that where they
  • 50:47are infiltrating the two may have a role.
  • 50:49And then we did the other analysis,
  • 50:51we see the distance right,
  • 50:53the distance of immune cells to
  • 50:55malignant cells measure here in the
  • 50:58software of the Polaris system.
  • 51:00And we found that let's focus on the
  • 51:03whole all cohort and this was also seen
  • 51:06in the people received the combination
  • 51:09is that when cytotoxic T cells activated,
  • 51:13toxic T cells are closer to malignant cells.
  • 51:16Actually those patients have better in
  • 51:19this case progression free survival.
  • 51:21And when those malignant cells expressed TL1,
  • 51:25we saw the same and there's one effect
  • 51:28on overall survival was activated
  • 51:30T cells so close to Malina cells.
  • 51:34So and and this was the same for
  • 51:37all cohort and for the new EP we
  • 51:40didn't see that effect on.
  • 51:42So with that,
  • 51:43I think they're going to stop because
  • 51:45the next is, is studies on the
  • 51:47genomic part in these analysis or on
  • 51:50the all link just going to go to my
  • 51:52last slide basically showing that
  • 51:54this in this clinical trial setting,
  • 51:58our exploratory analysis show that the
  • 52:01frequency attribution and cluster of
  • 52:03immune cells relative to malignant cell
  • 52:05may affect the the efficiency of immune
  • 52:08checkpoint and I see a typo there.
  • 52:10And also we had some other interesting
  • 52:13observation on their genomic and the
  • 52:15all link but I didn't have time to show
  • 52:17today because I'm running out of time.
  • 52:19So with that I would like to thank
  • 52:22you again for being here in person
  • 52:24and virtually and for your attention.
  • 52:26Happy to answer any question.
  • 52:28Thank you.
  • 52:39David. I
  • 52:41had a number of spatial information and
  • 52:44the type of cells were all associated
  • 52:47with a better or worse outcome.
  • 52:50The changes weren't that big.
  • 52:52Is there any of those assets
  • 52:54that you envision taking to
  • 52:55the clinic as a diagnostic?
  • 52:59Yeah, no, the the,
  • 53:01the changes are are not big.
  • 53:04I think that especially as you look
  • 53:07at density and and and and and the
  • 53:10fact on on on the patient's operation
  • 53:12fee survival overall survival.
  • 53:14There are some interesting cut
  • 53:16point that you can establish
  • 53:19in this spatial analysis.
  • 53:21And I'm particularly intrigued
  • 53:24by this is done by computational
  • 53:27people in our group about this
  • 53:29cell clustering analysis of the 20
  • 53:32Micron not 20 Micron because that's
  • 53:34kind of a point that you actually
  • 53:37establish that and you divide a
  • 53:39couple of measures significantly
  • 53:41not barely as we did it right.
  • 53:44It was a negative trial,
  • 53:45so hard to to come up with something
  • 53:48very very or or or or or you or
  • 53:53you just have you know significant
  • 53:55increase on people responding
  • 53:57versus not responded by that.
  • 54:00I think that there is an opportunity
  • 54:02there to have at least something
  • 54:03that is with a yes or no kind
  • 54:06of approach that's what
  • 54:10yes the cell the cell clustering
  • 54:13of immune cells that may have an
  • 54:16activation or repressing right in
  • 54:18the in the response that would be
  • 54:20good or bad in the in certain in in
  • 54:23radio of cells from malignant cells.
  • 54:26There is a potential cut point
  • 54:27there because I'm, I'm trying to,
  • 54:29you know, see what could be a
  • 54:31yes or no answer of a Biomark.
  • 54:34So that's one thing I think that there are,
  • 54:35there are some opportunities however,
  • 54:38I think that it's very hard to bring
  • 54:41these to a clear setting, right,
  • 54:44because the challenges of getting stable
  • 54:48work done in pathology laboratories
  • 54:52in in in the Multiplex area,
  • 54:56you have experience on that.
  • 54:57I think that your center and other
  • 55:00center probably could do that,
  • 55:01but there's a lot of variability
  • 55:04and we learned that when we tried
  • 55:06to do the Multiplex.
  • 55:07Similar to chemistry and fluorescent
  • 55:10harmonization among different sites.
  • 55:11We started with more than three.
  • 55:14We published we need to drop others
  • 55:17because we couldn't get to a basic
  • 55:21standard of performance of the Multiplex.
  • 55:24There's several challenges,
  • 55:25technical challenges how to get
  • 55:27the same sample across different
  • 55:29places right and things like that.
  • 55:31But I think that is is is very
  • 55:34challenging in my opinion.
  • 55:36I think that is any of these Multiplex
  • 55:38as I get to the clear setting is to
  • 55:42answer kind of fundamental questions.
  • 55:44So far is this a hot tumor or
  • 55:47is this a cold tumor?
  • 55:49This tumor express the cell that I'm
  • 55:51looking for the market I'm looking for.
  • 55:54I I also have a lot of hope on the
  • 55:58ABC field if that pan out and we
  • 56:00need more proteins to be examined
  • 56:02if they're used as a biomarker
  • 56:03to select patient maybe it's
  • 56:05an opportunity for Multiplex.
  • 56:07But I'm I'm I'm I will be nervous
  • 56:09about the performance of different
  • 56:12laboratory and and if they have the
  • 56:15right skills and the right controls
  • 56:18to actually validate the work.
  • 56:20I just followed up with a quick question.
  • 56:22So they're all related to the member sites.
  • 56:26Have you compared it to
  • 56:28just regular HD tails? No,
  • 56:33I haven't. But it's happening actually.
  • 56:36Why happening? Because we have a
  • 56:39group of computational pathology
  • 56:42that they like our Multiplex images
  • 56:46from these or codecs or the UMX,
  • 56:51but they want to work with H&ES.
  • 56:54And actually I had a couple of slides
  • 56:56on the printer plate lesion that all
  • 56:58these fancy T cell work that we did,
  • 57:01somebody can do it very well
  • 57:03with a metoxilinous aosine and
  • 57:05computational pathology.
  • 57:06So I think that there is hope with that,
  • 57:08but but you know the things that
  • 57:10we need to know what we're looking
  • 57:12for and if we don't do this
  • 57:15smart in depth characterization,
  • 57:16we're not exactly what we're looking for.
  • 57:20And then if that can be given by deal
  • 57:24a simple computational pathology assay,
  • 57:27I'm all for it.
  • 57:27But we need to know if we can do that.
  • 57:30And those can do a spatial analysis,
  • 57:32very simple, very easy,
  • 57:4111 difficulty that I see this type
  • 57:47of field, Is that everything for you?
  • 57:50Yeah, some redundancy.
  • 57:51It's very difficult to identify something.
  • 57:53Everything is correlated.
  • 57:54And the second one is the spatial analysis.
  • 57:57Generally, the distance between the cells
  • 58:00is inversely related with the density.
  • 58:02So essentially, typically the distance
  • 58:04is the inverse of the density.
  • 58:05So it's a survey measurement of this.
  • 58:08How do you think we can
  • 58:10extract or clean data
  • 58:11without those redundancy or those problems?
  • 58:13Do you have any? No, I I think that I
  • 58:19mean to me all this work is a way to
  • 58:21actually start mastering tools, right.
  • 58:23So are you can you do this special,
  • 58:25can you do go the Multiplex, you do go the
  • 58:32Multiplex asset, do they actually give
  • 58:34you the right answer for you expect
  • 58:37in terms of immune response and that
  • 58:39correlate with outcome of patient?
  • 58:41That's the basic question I think.
  • 58:43I think that we're at that stage
  • 58:46is any of these going to be a
  • 58:48biomarker I don't think so right.
  • 58:49We know that but actually it's it's pointed
  • 58:52out in the right direction in terms of
  • 58:55the methodology that you're applying.
  • 58:57So that's why I, I,
  • 58:57I fully agree with your comment
  • 59:00about you know everything correlate
  • 59:02with everything and I I I promise
  • 59:04I'm not hiding anything that didn't
  • 59:05correlate and it makes sense because
  • 59:07that's you find those right a lot
  • 59:09of things that correlate don't
  • 59:10make sense I I didn't hide any.
  • 59:13So we we we're we're we feel good about it.
  • 59:16So the other thing is that in
  • 59:19that sense if you master these
  • 59:23approaches can help you to better
  • 59:27work with biomarker will be complex,
  • 59:32right in terms of immune response when
  • 59:36the real biomarker comes and the real
  • 59:40biomarker will come on prospective
  • 59:43clinical trials in which biopsies
  • 59:45and other samples that you can save
  • 59:48in the freezer and but starting with
  • 59:50tissue analyze tissue on prospective
  • 59:52basis and for immune oncology on
  • 59:55in my opinion on logituinal basis,
  • 59:58right.
  • 59:59So get clinical trials biopsy
  • 01:00:01before on ongoing treatment and
  • 01:00:04you are lucky on time of progress
  • 01:00:06that will give you the answer.
  • 01:00:09I have experience working in rare
  • 01:00:11tumors with logituinal biopsies.
  • 01:00:13And sarcoma they were cold after a
  • 01:00:15couple of cycles of immune checkpoints
  • 01:00:17are not cold anymore and actually
  • 01:00:19some of those patients benefit
  • 01:00:21with very long stable diseases.
  • 01:00:22So I think that when we go to that area,
  • 01:00:25I think that all these tools
  • 01:00:27are going to make more sense.
  • 01:00:29And and and then specific
  • 01:00:31question about yours,
  • 01:00:33you know the challenge of density
  • 01:00:35and and proximity, I I don't have,
  • 01:00:37I don't have an answer on on that.
  • 01:00:40I heard about that.
  • 01:00:41I don't know how exactly to correlate,
  • 01:00:43I haven't seen the data but there's a
  • 01:00:47lot of also there's hope on 3D analysis,
  • 01:00:51right.
  • 01:00:52So we can actually because whatever
  • 01:00:54we're seeing we're seeing one dimension.
  • 01:00:57So maybe going deeper in in 3D assay will
  • 01:01:00be possible with computational pathology,
  • 01:01:03maybe you can solve that
  • 01:01:05because whatever we see now,
  • 01:01:07we're seeing in one place,
  • 01:01:08we see the density,
  • 01:01:09we see the instant in one section,
  • 01:01:11we don't know who's going on
  • 01:01:13low and above and probably it's
  • 01:01:16maybe it's that correlation not
  • 01:01:18as great as you pointed out,
  • 01:01:20but I don't,
  • 01:01:21I don't know how to actually
  • 01:01:23deal with that at this point.
  • 01:01:28Oh, sorry. So in some core Opsis and
  • 01:01:31both of your second vessels you can
  • 01:01:34see both features autoimmune microvirus
  • 01:01:36but you know tumor proliferative B
  • 01:01:39cells and hold it in microvirus And
  • 01:01:41you know how for those patients do
  • 01:01:44you think that they would respond
  • 01:01:46to some of these therapies.
  • 01:01:47And also nicely we should graph a
  • 01:01:50lot of this in essentially categorize
  • 01:01:52patients with these algorithms so
  • 01:01:54that we can make sure that we're not
  • 01:01:59you know that these algorithms are
  • 01:02:01biased against those areas that you know
  • 01:02:04essentially might have heterogeneous
  • 01:02:05spots of hot and cold regions.
  • 01:02:09So you yeah, so the the the
  • 01:02:12two more tetogeneity is, is,
  • 01:02:13is a tissue tetogeneity sometime right.
  • 01:02:16This is very challenging because
  • 01:02:18if you have a small biopsy you
  • 01:02:21are using what you got right.
  • 01:02:24So that's big bias and and you see
  • 01:02:27something that could be interpreted
  • 01:02:29as priming of immune response or some
  • 01:02:32either one expression that means you know
  • 01:02:35that something happened already there.
  • 01:02:37You you can assume that maybe the entire
  • 01:02:40tumor can be followed the same, right.
  • 01:02:42And if you are not lucky and you don't
  • 01:02:45see it, but it's happening somewhere else,
  • 01:02:47it's, it's a problem, right.
  • 01:02:49So that's that's and so my approach
  • 01:02:51has been in clinical research
  • 01:02:53prospective clinical trial,
  • 01:02:55we tried to get at least 5 biopsies, right.
  • 01:02:58So at least to try to
  • 01:03:00overcome the derogeneity.
  • 01:03:01Can we use the five biopsy
  • 01:03:03for everything that no,
  • 01:03:04but at least two have three and we we're,
  • 01:03:07we try to be good on that.
  • 01:03:09So that's one thing I hopefully in
  • 01:03:11the future more molecular imaging
  • 01:03:13on patients and and imaging advances
  • 01:03:16may help to identify the best
  • 01:03:18spot to get the biopsy,
  • 01:03:20but that's that's an issue on a larger
  • 01:03:22space tissue because it's resected.
  • 01:03:25It's also the bias,
  • 01:03:27right.
  • 01:03:28So how to select I hope competition
  • 01:03:31pathology tools in the future will
  • 01:03:33help us to reduce the bias of an
  • 01:03:36observer to select areas that actually
  • 01:03:38can give us a fair representation of
  • 01:03:41it of the two more in term of high,
  • 01:03:44medium, low grade or infiltration.
  • 01:03:48I I believe that because one of the
  • 01:03:51major issues in the field of the
  • 01:03:53Multiplex and I have data showing that
  • 01:03:56is how people select the region of interest.
  • 01:03:59Each of the images of the multi grid
  • 01:04:01for us is about 1mm diameter field and
  • 01:04:04we have a system to select those and
  • 01:04:08we select five per per per per case.
  • 01:04:11We can do whole whole, whole,
  • 01:04:14whole section now and we're doing
  • 01:04:16that in biopsy.
  • 01:04:17But when we started doing this work
  • 01:04:19have a Section 5 region but they did
  • 01:04:21analysis with a greed and similar
  • 01:04:23greed analysis I showed you before
  • 01:04:25we ran Casey with the monochemistry
  • 01:04:26with Multiplex and we're able to
  • 01:04:28ask for certain marker how many of
  • 01:04:31these equivalent to 1mm diameter
  • 01:04:33spots I need to get a picture of the
  • 01:04:36tumor from 5:00 if they gave us the
  • 01:04:39Max one of the highest R value .94.
  • 01:04:41So I think that 5 is good for lung cancer.
  • 01:04:44It may be different Melanoma maybe
  • 01:04:46different sarcoma different for
  • 01:04:47colorectal but for non small cell
  • 01:04:49and cancer warfare.
  • 01:04:49So that's it's another issue right
  • 01:04:52a bias of people analyzing.
  • 01:04:54So I I believe that computational
  • 01:04:57pathology tools could give us us
  • 01:04:59that answer actually you have when
  • 01:05:02we don't have the thing to do
  • 01:05:04whole sections
  • 01:05:04analysis in the Multiplex.
  • 01:05:06My hope is that our computational
  • 01:05:08pathology team can develop this
  • 01:05:10unbiased system that tell us these
  • 01:05:12are the region of interest when I give
  • 01:05:15you based on what they have learned,
  • 01:05:16we need to feed them also with
  • 01:05:18some of the Multiplex data,
  • 01:05:20the area that you could actually
  • 01:05:22analyze and get a good picture of
  • 01:05:24what's going on that tumor and
  • 01:05:26that's not happening these days is
  • 01:05:29somebody that may like lymphocyte
  • 01:05:31go to the lymphocyte.
  • 01:05:32Oh, it's a lot of information here.
  • 01:05:35And and and and focus only there.
  • 01:05:38Yeah.
  • 01:05:43All right.