Delineating spatial cell-cell interactions in the solid tumour microenvironment through the lens of highly multiplexed imaging

The growth and metastasis of solid tumours is known to be facilitated by the tumour microenvironment (TME), which is composed of a highly diverse collection of cell types that interact and communicate with one another extensively. Many of these interactions involve the immune cell population within the TME, referred to as the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME). These non-cell autonomous interactions exert substantial influence over cell behaviour and contribute to the reprogramming of immune and stromal cells into numerous pro-tumourigenic phenotypes. The study of some of these interactions, such as the PD-1/PD-L1 axis that induces CD8(+) T cell exhaustion, has led to the development of breakthrough therapeutic advances. Yet many common analyses of the TME either do not retain the spatial data necessary to assess cell-cell interactions, or interrogate few (<10) markers, limiting the capacity for cell phenotyping. Recently developed digital pathology technologies, together with sophisticated bioimage analysis programs, now enable the high-resolution, highly-multiplexed analysis of diverse immune and stromal cell markers within the TME of clinical specimens. In this article, we review the tumour-promoting non-cell autonomous interactions in the TME and their impact on tumour behaviour. We additionally survey commonly used image analysis programs and highly-multiplexed spatial imaging technologies, and we discuss their relative advantages and limitations. The spatial organization of the TME varies enormously between patients, and so leveraging these technologies in future studies to further characterize how non-cell autonomous interactions impact tumour behaviour may inform the personalization of cancer treatment.