Assessing Tumor-infiltrating Lymphocytes in Solid Tumors

Maria John , Roberto Salgado (1) , Thomas Gevaert , Prudence A Russell , Tom John , Bibhusal Thapa , Michael Christie , Koen van de Vijver , M V Estrada , Paula I Gonzalez-Ericsson , Melinda Sanders , Benjamin D. Solomon (2) , Cinzia Solinas , Gert G G M van den Eynden , Yves Allory (3) , Matthias Preusser , Johannes Hainfellner , Giancarlo Pruneri (4) , Andre Vingiani , Sandra Demaria , Fraser Symmans , Paolo Nuciforo (5) , Laura Comerma , E A Thompson , Sunil Lakhani , Seong-Rim Kim , Stuart Schnitt , Cecile Colpaert , Christos Sotiriou (1) , Stefan Scherer (6) , Michail Ignatiadis (7) , Sunil Badve , Robert H Pierce , Giuseppe Viale (8) , Nicolas Sirtaine , Fred Penault-Llorca (9, 10) , Tomohagu Sugie , Susan Fineberg , Soonmyung Paik , Ashok Srinivasan , Andre Richardson , Yihong Wang , Ewa Chmielik , Jane Brock , Douglas B Johnson , Justin Balko , Stephan Wienert , Veerle Bossuyt , Stefan Michiels (11, 12) , Nils F Ternès (12) , Nicole Burchardi , Stephen Luen , Peter Savas , Fred Klauschen , Peter H Watson , Brad H Nelson (13) , Carmen Criscitiello , Sandra O'Toole , Denis Larsimont (14) , Roland de Wind , Giuseppe Curigliano (15) , Fabrice André (16) , Magali Lacroix-Triki (17) , Mark van de Vijver , Federico Rojo , Giuseppe Floris , Shahinaz Bedri , Joseph Sparano , David Rimm , Torsten Nielsen , Zuzana Kos , Stephen Hewitt , Baljit Singh , Gelareh Farshid , Sibylle Loi , Kimberly H Allison , Nadine Tung , Sylvia Adams , Karen Willard-Gallo , Hugo M Horlings , Leena Gandhi , Andre Moreira (18) , Fred R. Hirsch (19) , Maria Dieci , Maria Urbanowicz , Iva Brcic , Konstanty Korski , Fabien Gaire , Hartmut Koeppen , Amy Lo , Jennifer Giltnane , Marlon C Rebelatto , Keith E Steele , Jiping Zha , Kenneth Emancipator , Jonathan W Juco , Carsten Denkert (20) , Jorge Reis-Filho (21) , Sherene Loi (1) , Stephen B Fox , Shona Hendry , Prudence A. Russell , M.V. Estrada , Paula I. Gonzalez-Ericsson , Gert G.G.M. van den Eynden , E.A. Thompson , Robert H. Pierce (22) , Douglas B. Johnson (23) , Peter H. Watson , Brad H. Nelson , Sandra O’toole , Kimberly H. Allison , Hugo M. Horlings , Marlon C. Rebelatto , Keith E. Steele , Jonathan W. Juco , Stephen B. Fox (24)

1 Breast Cancer Translational Research Laboratory
2 Cancer Genetics Branch
3 Service d'urologie [Mondor]
4 Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
5 FIRC
6 Trinity College Dublin
7 Department of medical oncology
8 Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
9 IMoST - Imagerie Moléculaire et Stratégies Théranostiques
10 UNICANCER/CJP - Centre Jean Perrin [Clermont-Ferrand]
11 SBE - Service de biostatistique et d'épidémiologie
12 U1018 (Équipe 2) - Méthodologie et épidémiologie clinique en oncologie moléculaire
13 Trev and Joyce Deeley Research Center
14 Institut Jules Bordet [Bruxelles]
15 Division of Medical Oncology
16 Département de médecine oncologique [Gustave Roussy]
17 Département de Biologie et de Pathologie
18 Department of Dermatology
19 University of Colorado Cancer Center
20 Charité, Institute of Pathology, Translational Tumorpathology Unit
21 Breakthrough Breast Cancer Centre
22 Department of Experimental Pathology & Pharmacology
23 Vanderbilt University School of Medicine [Nashville]
24 Department of Pathology

Assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in histopathologic specimens can provide important prognostic information in diverse solid tumor types, and may also be of value in predicting response to treatments. However, implementation as a routine clinical biomarker has not yet been achieved. As successful use of immune checkpoint inhibitors and other forms of immunotherapy become a clinical reality, the need for widely applicable, accessible, and reliable immunooncology biomarkers is clear. In part 1 of this review we briefly discuss the host immune response to tumors and different approaches to TIL assessment. We propose a standardized methodology to assess TILs in solid tumors on hematoxylin and eosin sections, in both primary and metastatic settings, based on the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group guidelines for TIL assessment in invasive breast carcinoma. A review of the literature regarding the value of TIL assessment in different solid tumor types follows in part 2. The method we propose is reproducible, affordable, easily applied, and has demonstrated prognostic and predictive significance in invasive breast carcinoma. This standardized methodology may be used as a reference against which other methods are compared, and should be evaluated for clinical validity and utility. Standardization of TIL assessment will help to improve consistency and reproducibility in this field, enrich both the quality and quantity of comparable evidence, and help to thoroughly evaluate the utility of TILs assessment in this era of immunotherapy.

Domaines: Cancer

Maria John, Roberto Salgado, Thomas Gevaert, Prudence A Russell, Tom John, et al.. Assessing Tumor-infiltrating Lymphocytes in Solid Tumors. Advances in Anatomic Pathology, 2017, 24 (5), pp.235 - 251. ⟨10.1097/PAP.0000000000000162⟩. ⟨hal-01675241⟩