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EDULEARN24

Annual Expo by the Journal of Young Explorers Meta

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A Novel Prognostic Assessment of an Anti-tumor Biomarker: An In Silico Analysis of Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Melanoma

by Ashna Muni
August 13, 2025 ISBN: 979-8-89480-845-1 NYCSEA Journal

 

Abstract: Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are adaptive immune cells that play a significant role in engulfing mutated cells in the body's antitumor response. However, due to a lack of TIL analysis softwares, oncologists have not yet identified whether TILs are a viable prognostic biomarker for cancers. They instead have continued to create prognoses based on the obsolete method of measuring the depth of a patient’s cancer. Thus, this novel In Silico study analyzed the impact of varying TIL concentrations on the clinical outcomes of melanoma patients using open-source digital image analysis (DIA) software. I utilized the tumor images and clinical data of 48 melanoma patients, as melanoma is the most severe form of skin cancer, impacting 57,000 people annually, for data analyses. Using cell classification features with novel classification code and Qupath DIA software, I examined the concentrations of TILs, in the context of tumor cells and stroma, of each melanoma patient. I found that patients with high TIL concentrations had a significantly higher mean disease-free survival rate of 100% compared to the 50% mean disease-free survival rate of patients with low TIL concentrations (p<0.05). Additionally, patients who had one or more melanoma recurrence had significantly lower TIL concentrations than those who did not (p<0.005). These novel results suggest that TILs are highly prognostic of melanoma patients’ clinical outcomes and may be utilized in a melanoma treatment administration framework. Future research may expand on this study by exploring which specific TILs have the greatest prognostic significance.

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