Fighter Cells Near Tumours Could Boost Survival for Ovarian Cancer Patients
An Australian-first study by researchers is giving new hope to women facing one of the deadliest cancers, with scientists discovering that the survival odds of ovarian cancer patients may rise when certain ‘fighter’ immune cells are located close to their tumours, opening the door to smarter, personalised treatments.
Researchers at the Wesley Research Institute’s Queensland Spatial Biology Centre (QSBC), led by Clinical Director and CCRG Founder, Prof John Fraser AO, have uncovered this promising clue while investigating high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), one of the deadliest forms of the disease, which claims over 207,000 lives worldwide each year.
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Queensland Spatial Biology Centre Scientific Director, Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe and researcher Naomi Berrell are inspecting ovarian cancer tissue microarray. Image via Wesley Research Institute.
Proximity and metabolic activity proxies in the tumor microenvironment as predictors of survival in high grade serous ovarian cancer. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.113572
High grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is a lethal gynecological malignancy, often detected at the late stages of disease. There is a need to identify predictors of therapeutic response in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Here, we used spatial proteomics to characterize the TME of 51 patients with HGSOC and identify features that contribute to patient survival. Using a 48-plex immunofluorescent protein panel, we analyzed tumor and immune cell interactions. We identified that more CD66+ cells in a 50 μm radius of tumor cells and more cytotoxic CD8 T-Cells within a 10 μm radius of the tumor boundary were associated with improved overall survival. The proximity of Tregs to some metabolically active tumor cells was favourable, while their proximity to less metabolically active tumors was less favourable. Our data suggest that a comprehensive functional and metabolic understanding of the TME is needed to quantify the therapeutic benefits in HGSOC.