Figure 7: Tumor-Immune mixing and immune-regulatory expression patterns relate to overall survival.
(A) Cartoon depicting three archetypes of tumor-immune composition and organization in TNBC. Cold tumors have few immune cells, mainly macrophages. Mixed tumors have tumor and immune cells mixed together. IDO and PD-L1, if expressed, are expressed primarily on tumor cells and PD-1 on CD8+ T cells. In compartmentalized tumors, the immune and tumor cells are spatially segregated. Neutrophils are enriched near the border, whereas B-cells form secondary lymphoid structures further away. IDO and PD-L1 are expressed primarily on immune cells and PD-1 on CD4+ T cells. A subset of tumors express HLA-DR, with a gradient of HLA-DR and H3K9ac/H3K27me3 from the border towards the tumor center. (B) Kaplan-Meier curves showing survival as a function of time for patients with compartmentalized or mixed tumor- immune organizations. Hazards ratio (HR) and p-value (P) were calculated using Cox regression analysis.