Identifying spatial tumor microenvironment signatures for risk stratification in primary melanoma

The importance of tumor microenvironment (TME) in regulating cancer progression and influencing therapeutic outcome is widely appreciated. Recent developments in multiplexed tissue imaging technology offer powerful platforms for dissecting the spatial biology of TME by enabling the simultaneous detection of multiple markers of interest on a single tissue slide. In this study, we will perform whole-slide multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) tissue imaging analysis of 450 InterMEL Stage II/III primary invasive melanomas focusing on markers staining the immune cells and tumor vasculature. InterMEL is a case-control study that retrospectively enrolled pathological AJCC8 stage IIA-IIID cutaneous primary melanoma patients from 15 hospitals or treatment centers in the USA, Australia, and Spain. Cases were patients who had died of melanoma within 5 years of diagnosis; controls were patients who had survived for at least 5 years without evidence of melanoma recurrence. The outcome of the study will advance the field in several ways including a large mIF image data repository generated in primary melanoma; innovative computational methods and tools for spatial immuno-phenotyping and for identifying spatial TME signatures to distinguish aggressive versus indolent disease. Project Number: 1R01CA310060-01 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: National Cancer Institute (NCI) | Principal Investigator: Ronglai Shen (+1 co-PI) | Institution: SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH, NEW YORK, NY | Award Amount: $693,290 | Activity Code: R01 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZRG1 EPH-T (91)] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11320190