Tumor microenvironment governs the prognostic landscape of immunotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A computational model-guided analysis
Fig 9
IL-8: Potential biomarker for identifying TME subtype:
(a-b) Show that with high immune accessibility, the IL-8 level is low and is further reduced following a neo-adjuvant ICI therapy, whereas the scenario with low immune accessibility (characteristic of a fibro-dominated TME) can be identified with a slight increase in the post-ICI IL-8 level. Although the IL-8 trend is similar for immune-dominated and immune/non-fibrotic TME, the absolute levels differ significantly between the two subtypes. (c) The removal of both OPN and LIF reprograms the TME towards a immune/non-fibrotic subtype. Therefore, the IL-8 level post-OPN and LIF knockout followed by ICI also drops drastically compared to its pre-ICI and pre-removal counterparts.