The incidence of pancreatic cancer is increasing in Australia. This is alarming, as pancreatic cancer continues to be recalcitrant to therapeutic interventions, reflected in a 5-year survival rate of less than 13%. The development of successful new therapies has been fundamentally limited by the inadequate understanding of the complex interactions that occur between pancreatic cancer cells and their environment.
Pancreatic cancer is associated with chronic inflammation resulting from dysregulated activation of the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system in the pancreas, which invariably leads to an immunosuppressive environment allowing for tumour immune escape. Furthermore, the tumour microenvironment of pancreatic cancer is often characterised with desmoplasia where stromal cells create a physical barrier around the cancer cells, occluding access from therapeutic efforts.
Our research aims to untangle the immune and stromal landscape of pancreatic cancer using spatial proteomics. We have utilised the MIBIscope in generating a detailed phenotypic analysis of the tumour microenvironment by imaging immune and stromal markers across eight pancreatic cancer patient tumour samples. Using this technique, we are able to capture the heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer within the same tumour and between different tumours. Data from each patient are corroborated back to our unique PURPLE translational registry to elucidate prognostic associations between the tumour microenvironment, tumour types, and treatment outcomes. The next steps are to apply this pipeline to a larger cohort of patients, with the objective to enable the discovery and development of molecular-targeted biomarkers that inform treatment strategies.