The authors present a robust diagnostic algorithm based on digital pathology and image analysis that quantifies intratumoral and stromal CD8+ T-cell densities in the tumor center and invasive margin compartment in metastatic melanoma. Spatial CD8+ T-cell densities are translated into the clinically relevant immune diagnostic categories “inflamed”, “excluded”, and “desert”. Their approach also allows efficient immune phenotyping of metastatic lesions, on biopsy material or even in the absence of material from the invasive margin.
- Bettina Sobottka
- Marta Nowak
- Viktor Hendrik Koelzer