Abstract 1709: Quantification of biologically relevant vascular phenotypes in human prostate cancer: automated image analysis using hyperplexed immunofluorescence

Although anti-angiogenic therapy has emerged as a leading modality in treating human cancer, further improvements in the duration and frequency of clinical response of various human cancers remain important clinical needs. Maturity of the tumor vasculature has been identified as one of the major determinants of response of cancers to anti-angiogenic treatments. We have developed and optimized the application of a quantitative, high throughput, hyper-plexed, fluorescence imaging technology to refine our understanding of the complexity of vascular phenotypes in various human malignancies. The technology was used to quantify tumor blood vessels and expression of thirteen proteins of known roles in blood vessel biology in single sections from archival primary tumor tissues from 64 prostate cancer patients. CD31 was used to segment vascular objects in each image. CD31 and CD34 endothelial cell staining, SMA pericyte staining, and collagen IV basement membrane staining were used to classify detected vessels using K-means cluster analysis. Segmented vessels were clustered into 2-20 cluster sets, and the reproducibility of vessel classification of each cluster set was determined using the consensus clustering algorithm. A six cluster set that reflected biologically relevant tumor vascular subsets with high consensus clustering concordance was selected for further analysis. Clusters consistent with different stages of vessel development were obtained, including clusters with CD34 high...

Source: Cancer Research - August 2, 2015 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Sevinsky, C., Santamaria-Pang, A., Zhang, J., Lowes, C., Sangurdekar, D., Falcon, B., Li, Q., Pytowski, B., Benjamin, L., Graff, J., Ginty, F., Nasir, A., Uhlik, M. T. Tags: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics Source Type: research