TY - JOUR
T1 - Multi-institutional TSA-amplified Multiplexed Immunofluorescence Reproducibility Evaluation (MITRE) Study
AU - Taube, Janis M.
AU - Roman, Kristin
AU - Engle, Elizabeth L.
AU - Wang, Chichung
AU - Ballesteros-Merino, Carmen
AU - Jensen, Shawn M.
AU - McGuire, John
AU - Jiang, Mei
AU - Coltharp, Carla
AU - Remeniuk, Bethany
AU - Wistuba, Ignacio
AU - Locke, Darren
AU - Parra, Edwin R.
AU - Fox, Bernard A.
AU - Rimm, David L.
AU - Hoyt, Cliff
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding This work was supported by National Cancer Institute 3R01CA142779-09S1A1 (JMT, DR, BF, and ERP); The MD Anderson Lung Cancer Moon Shot Program, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Multi-Investigator Research Award grant (RP160668), The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research (JMT), Emerson Collective (JMT); Bristol-Myers Squibb (JMT); Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Core Grant P30 CA006973 (JMT); and The Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Competing interests CB-M, SMJ, and BAF: research support from Bristol Myers Squibb II-ON program, and equipment and supply support from Akoya Biosciences; JT: research support from Bristol Myers Squibb; DLR declares that in the last 2 years, he has served as a consultant to AstraZeneca, Amgen, BMS, Cell Signaling Technology, Cepheid, Daiichi Sankyo, Danaher, GSK, Konica/ Minolta, Merck, NanoString, Novartis, PAIGE.AI, PerkinElmer/Akoya Biosciences, Ultivue, and Ventana Medical Systems; BAF declares consulting for Ultivue and Neogenomics and research support from Macrogenics, Bristol Myers Squibb, Incyte, OncoSec Medical, and Merck; KR, CW, JM, CC, BR, DL, and CH: all are employees of Akoya Biosciences. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed by the other authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2021/7/15
Y1 - 2021/7/15
N2 - Background Emerging data suggest predictive biomarkers based on the spatial arrangement of cells or coexpression patterns in tissue sections will play an important role in precision immuno-oncology. Multiplexed immunofluorescence (mIF) is ideally suited to such assessments. Standardization and validation of an end-to-end workflow that supports multisite trials and clinical laboratory processes are vital. Six institutions collaborated to: (1) optimize an automated six-plex assay focused on the PD-1/PD-L1 axis, (2) assess intersite and intrasite reproducibility of staining using a locked down image analysis algorithm to measure tumor cell and immune cell (IC) subset densities, %PD-L1 expression on tumor cells (TCs) and ICs, and PD-1/PD-L1 proximity assessments. Methods A six-plex mIF panel (PD-L1, PD-1, CD8, CD68, FOXP3, and CK) was rigorously optimized as determined by quantitative equivalence to immunohistochemistry (IHC) chromogenic assays. Serial sections from tonsil and breast carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue microarrays (TMAs), TSA-Opal fluorescent detection reagents, and antibodies were distributed to the six sites equipped with a Leica Bond Rx autostainer and a Vectra Polaris multispectral imaging platform. Tissue sections were stained and imaged at each site and delivered to a single site for analysis. Intersite and intrasite reproducibility were assessed by linear fits to plots of cell densities, including %PDL1 expression by TCs and ICs in the breast and NSCLC TMAs. Results Comparison of the percent positive cells for each marker between mIF and IHC revealed that enhanced amplification in the mIF assay was required to detect low-level expression of PD-1, PD-L1, FoxP3 and CD68. Following optimization, an average equivalence of 90% was achieved between mIF and IHC across all six assay markers. Intersite and intrasite cell density assessments showed an average concordance of R 2 =0.75 (slope=0.92) and R 2 =0.88 (slope=0.93) for breast carcinoma, respectively, and an average concordance of R 2 =0.72 (slope=0.86) and R 2 =0.81 (slope=0.68) for NSCLC. Intersite concordance for %PD-L1+ICs had an average R 2 value of 0.88 and slope of 0.92. Assessments of PD-1/PD-L1 proximity also showed strong concordance (R 2 =0.82; slope=0.75). Conclusions Assay optimization yielded highly sensitive, reproducible mIF characterization of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis across multiple sites. High concordance was observed across sites for measures of density of specific IC subsets, measures of coexpression and proximity with single-cell resolution.
AB - Background Emerging data suggest predictive biomarkers based on the spatial arrangement of cells or coexpression patterns in tissue sections will play an important role in precision immuno-oncology. Multiplexed immunofluorescence (mIF) is ideally suited to such assessments. Standardization and validation of an end-to-end workflow that supports multisite trials and clinical laboratory processes are vital. Six institutions collaborated to: (1) optimize an automated six-plex assay focused on the PD-1/PD-L1 axis, (2) assess intersite and intrasite reproducibility of staining using a locked down image analysis algorithm to measure tumor cell and immune cell (IC) subset densities, %PD-L1 expression on tumor cells (TCs) and ICs, and PD-1/PD-L1 proximity assessments. Methods A six-plex mIF panel (PD-L1, PD-1, CD8, CD68, FOXP3, and CK) was rigorously optimized as determined by quantitative equivalence to immunohistochemistry (IHC) chromogenic assays. Serial sections from tonsil and breast carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue microarrays (TMAs), TSA-Opal fluorescent detection reagents, and antibodies were distributed to the six sites equipped with a Leica Bond Rx autostainer and a Vectra Polaris multispectral imaging platform. Tissue sections were stained and imaged at each site and delivered to a single site for analysis. Intersite and intrasite reproducibility were assessed by linear fits to plots of cell densities, including %PDL1 expression by TCs and ICs in the breast and NSCLC TMAs. Results Comparison of the percent positive cells for each marker between mIF and IHC revealed that enhanced amplification in the mIF assay was required to detect low-level expression of PD-1, PD-L1, FoxP3 and CD68. Following optimization, an average equivalence of 90% was achieved between mIF and IHC across all six assay markers. Intersite and intrasite cell density assessments showed an average concordance of R 2 =0.75 (slope=0.92) and R 2 =0.88 (slope=0.93) for breast carcinoma, respectively, and an average concordance of R 2 =0.72 (slope=0.86) and R 2 =0.81 (slope=0.68) for NSCLC. Intersite concordance for %PD-L1+ICs had an average R 2 value of 0.88 and slope of 0.92. Assessments of PD-1/PD-L1 proximity also showed strong concordance (R 2 =0.82; slope=0.75). Conclusions Assay optimization yielded highly sensitive, reproducible mIF characterization of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis across multiple sites. High concordance was observed across sites for measures of density of specific IC subsets, measures of coexpression and proximity with single-cell resolution.
KW - biomarkers
KW - breast neoplasms
KW - immunohistochemistry
KW - lung neoplasms
KW - programmed cell death 1 receptor
KW - tumor
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U2 - 10.1136/jitc-2020-002197
DO - 10.1136/jitc-2020-002197
M3 - Article
C2 - 34266881
AN - SCOPUS:85110488035
SN - 2051-1426
VL - 9
JO - Journal for immunotherapy of cancer
JF - Journal for immunotherapy of cancer
IS - 7
M1 - e002197
ER -