As the field of cancer immunotherapy advances and new therapeutics are developed, there has been much emphasis on understanding tumor-specific aspects of a patient's individualized disease, and subsequently targeting treatment towards specific biomarkers. Immunohistochemistry (IHC)/Immunofluorescence (IF) technologies, which allow the simultaneous characterization of multiple markers on a single tissue section, have been introduced and adopted in both research and clinical settings in response to increased demand to solve major questions surrounding the pathogenesis of various complex disorders with are envisioned to be critical for the selection of novel therapeutics in the future. Several highly multiplexed tissue imaging technologies have also emerged based on cyclic IF, tyramide-based IHC/IF, epitope-targeted mass spectrometry, or RNA detection, permitting comprehensive studies of cell composition, functional state and cell-cell interactions which suggest improved diagnostic benefits. In addition to multiplexed analysis, some of these techniques are able to provide comprehensive cellular spatial information, allowing greater insight into the pathogenesis of cancer and responsiveness to immunotherapy. Clinical adoption of these technologies, however, remains limited due to various challenges including standardized reporting methods. On the other hand, multiplex image technologies can provide a high amount of information to drive new approaches for personalized medicine for immunotherapy when the samples are limited for performances of different studies during clinical trials or for diagnosis purposes.
Characterizing the applicability of these technologies, discussing their advantages and disadvantages, and recognizing their application in clinical translational studies would help advance pathologists, oncologists, and research scientists in the field of cancer immunotherapy by helping identify the best options for the application of multiplex technology, and engage stakeholders to standardize data validation techniques and practices.
This Research Topic will aim to show the applicability of the most commercialized imaging modalities and to enable prospective users to make an informed choice when conducting their research or clinical work. We welcome submissions on:
- Antibody standardization for multiplex IHC/IF technologies
- Biomarker discovery using multiplex IHC/IF technologies
- Strategies and standardization of image analysis using multiplex IHC/IF
- Basis and recommendations on multiplex IHC/IF assays development and optimization
- Multiplex cellular phenotype identification and characterization using multiplex IHC/IF
- Spatial immune profiling as a scoring system for translational studies
- Application of artificial intelligence for multiplex IHC/IF image analysis
- Data size and data sharing report in longitudinal studies
- Immunoprofiling tumor tissues
- Multiplex IHC/IF techniques in the era of cancer immunotherapy
- Applicability of multiplex IHC/IF for clinical purposes
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.
As the field of cancer immunotherapy advances and new therapeutics are developed, there has been much emphasis on understanding tumor-specific aspects of a patient's individualized disease, and subsequently targeting treatment towards specific biomarkers. Immunohistochemistry (IHC)/Immunofluorescence (IF) technologies, which allow the simultaneous characterization of multiple markers on a single tissue section, have been introduced and adopted in both research and clinical settings in response to increased demand to solve major questions surrounding the pathogenesis of various complex disorders with are envisioned to be critical for the selection of novel therapeutics in the future. Several highly multiplexed tissue imaging technologies have also emerged based on cyclic IF, tyramide-based IHC/IF, epitope-targeted mass spectrometry, or RNA detection, permitting comprehensive studies of cell composition, functional state and cell-cell interactions which suggest improved diagnostic benefits. In addition to multiplexed analysis, some of these techniques are able to provide comprehensive cellular spatial information, allowing greater insight into the pathogenesis of cancer and responsiveness to immunotherapy. Clinical adoption of these technologies, however, remains limited due to various challenges including standardized reporting methods. On the other hand, multiplex image technologies can provide a high amount of information to drive new approaches for personalized medicine for immunotherapy when the samples are limited for performances of different studies during clinical trials or for diagnosis purposes.
Characterizing the applicability of these technologies, discussing their advantages and disadvantages, and recognizing their application in clinical translational studies would help advance pathologists, oncologists, and research scientists in the field of cancer immunotherapy by helping identify the best options for the application of multiplex technology, and engage stakeholders to standardize data validation techniques and practices.
This Research Topic will aim to show the applicability of the most commercialized imaging modalities and to enable prospective users to make an informed choice when conducting their research or clinical work. We welcome submissions on:
- Antibody standardization for multiplex IHC/IF technologies
- Biomarker discovery using multiplex IHC/IF technologies
- Strategies and standardization of image analysis using multiplex IHC/IF
- Basis and recommendations on multiplex IHC/IF assays development and optimization
- Multiplex cellular phenotype identification and characterization using multiplex IHC/IF
- Spatial immune profiling as a scoring system for translational studies
- Application of artificial intelligence for multiplex IHC/IF image analysis
- Data size and data sharing report in longitudinal studies
- Immunoprofiling tumor tissues
- Multiplex IHC/IF techniques in the era of cancer immunotherapy
- Applicability of multiplex IHC/IF for clinical purposes
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.
