Mining metastatic lymph nodes for a response to immunotherapy in lung cancer

The research project of Dr Elena Donders (University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium) evaluates whether the composition of metastatic lymph nodes (mLN) can influence or even predict a response to immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer. 

To assess this, the evolving microenvironment of LNs was mapped at a single-cell level after which these findings were correlated to a treatment outcome on immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI). These analyses revealed that the tumor microenvironment of mLNs differs significantly from that of the primary tumour, highlighting the need to further explore this immune compartment. Where the immune landscape of healthy and tumour-draining LNs is relatively similar, tumour invasion triggers a significant shift in the cell composition. The latter was most notably reflected by an increase in the myeloid cell proportion in mLNs. Interestingly, Langerhans cell-like and monocytic dendritic cells were shown to dominate the mLN dendritic cell landscape. Furthermore, the presence of these cells proved to be positively associated with a durable response to ICI therapy.