Balázs Ács, Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“A great day for immuno-oncology and pathology clinical research!
I am thrilled to see the publication of three major Lancet Oncology papers from the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group on Breast Cancer (TILs Working Group), representing years of collaboration, dedication, and scientific effort from researchers, pathologists, oncologists, biostatisticians, and computational scientists around the world. I am particularly honored that I could contribute to two of these publications in The Lancet Oncology, partnering with the TILs Working Group and many outstanding colleagues worldwide.
These studies advance our understanding of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast cancer from multiple perspectives:
The CATALINA study delivered the first large-scale independent validation of AI-based TIL assessment across multiple randomized clinical trials in triple-negative breast cancer. Importantly, computational TIL scores provided robust prognostic information even when deployed as locked models without retraining, representing a major step toward scalable and reproducible immune biomarker assessment. It was fantastic to work closely with Julia Dixon-Douglas, Damien Drubay, Roberto Salgado, and the entire international team on this landmark study.
Title: Artificial intelligence-based tumour infiltrating lymphocyte quantification in patients with triple-negative breast cancer: an independent validation study
Authors: Julia R. Dixon-Douglas, Damien Drubay, Roberto Salgado, Balazs Acs, Jeroen van der Laak, Yinyin Yuan, Mohamed Amgad, Lee Cooper, Yeman Hagos, Khalid AbdulJabbar, James Meakin, Bram van Ginneken, Haixi Yan, Jerôme Lemonnier, Frédérique Penault-Llorca, Magali Lacroix-Triki, Heikki Joensuu, Pirkko-Liisa Kellokumpu-Lehtinen, Sybille Loibl, Carsten Denkert, Giuseppe Viale, Marco Angelo Colleoni, Christos Sotiriou, Martine Piccart, Maria Vittoria Dieci, Sandra Demaria, Roswitha Kammler, Antonio C. Wolff, Joseph A. Sparano, Sylvia Adams, Sunil Badve, Robert J. Gray, Giuseppe Curigliano, Anne Vincent-Salomon, Torsten O. Nielsen, Lajos Pusztai, Francesco Ciompi, Stefan Michiels, and Sherene Loi.
Read the Full Article on The Lancet Oncology
The APHINITY study demonstrated that manual, digital, and AI-based TIL assessment all provide important prognostic information in HER2-positive breast cancer, while also highlighting the potential of computational approaches to identify patients who may derive greater benefit from HER2-targeted therapies.
Title: Manual, digital, and AI tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte scoring: a secondary analysis of the APHINITY randomised trial
Authors: Luis E. Lara González, Fabiola Giudici, Roberto Salgado, Haixi Yan, Federico Rojo, Laura Comerma, Stephan Wienert, Jose Palacios, Zuzana Kos, Sanne Lysbet de Haas, Alvaro Rodriguez-Lescure, Giuseppe Viale, Yue Zheng, Dongxia Gao, Astrid Kiermaier, Fabrice Andre, Sibylle Loibl, Martine J. Piccart, Richard Gelber, David Cameron, Ian E. Krop, Peter Savas, Torsten O. Nielsen, Carsten Denkert, Stefan Michiels, and Sherene Loi.
Read the Full Article on The Lancet Oncology
The accompanying review summarizes the growing role of TILs in radiation oncology and outlines future opportunities for personalized breast cancer treatment.
Title: Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and breast radiotherapy: perspectives from the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group
Authors: Jetske L. B. Gunster, Trine Tramm, Melanie Machiels, Sandra Demaria, Silvia C. Formenti, Alex de Caluwe, Frances Duane, Jonathan Klein, Daniel Sur, Navita Somaiah, Eileen Rakovitch, Katarzyna J. Jerzak, Fang-I Lu, Crispin T. Hiley, Muriel Brackstone, Anna Ehinger, Sai K. Maley, Balazs Acs, Ioannis Zerdes, Demet Ozcan, Andrey Khramtsov, Eduardo Salido, Thomas G. Papathomas, Priyanka Sharma, Shane Stecklein, Galina Khramtsova, Zsuzsanna Horvath, Daniel Markov, Alexandros Hardas, Jose Fernando do Prado Moura, Ana Ramirez, Wendy A. Woodward, Abirami Sivapiragasam, Carsten Denkert, Stefan Michiels, Sherene Loi, Philip Poortmans, Robert W. Mutter, Roberto Salgado, William T. Tran
Read the Full Article on The Lancet Oncology.
Congratulations to all authors, and especially to the leaders of these remarkable international efforts, kudos to Roberto Salgado, Stefan Michiels, William Tran, Sherene Loi. This is a fantastic example of how global collaboration can move biomarkers from research towards clinical implementation for the benefit of our patients.”
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