Single-Cell Spatial Architecture of the Immune Microenvironment in Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objectives: Oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) has an aggressive nature and poor prognosis. The Tumor Immune Microenvironment (TIME) has been shown to be strongly linked to cancer progression and is therefore considered a good target for cancer treatment. The objective of this study is to comprehensively evaluate the complex and heterogeneous interplay of tumor and immune cells throughout OCSCC progression.
Methods: We applied image mass cytometry (IMC), a single-cell multiplex imaging approach, to characterize cell phenotypes and function in the tumor-stroma interface as well as their spatial arrangement.
Results: Our preliminary data using a 20-parameter IMC on three Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded patient blocks from the University of the Pacific pathology sample archive showed that we identified 22 different cell phenotypes based on marker protein expression levels. In addition, we identified spatial patterns of immune cell distribution associated with different OCSCC tumor phenotypes: CD8⁺T cells and macrophages interacted with Ki67⁺ proliferative tumor cells but avoided the E-Cadherin^hi tumor segments; and the tumor infiltration pattern of CD8+T cells differed based on the degree of tumor differentiation.
Conclusions: It is suggested that specific immune neighborhoods associate with different tumor phenotypes in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.