Abstract 2423: Deep phenotyping of dissociated solid tumor cells from breast cancer specimens

Exploring tumor heterogeneity with the goal of improving outcome has led to the need to glean as much information as possible at an individual cell level from these valuable specimens. Traditional approaches to solid tumor analyses fail to reveal the diverse range of cellular compartments beyond tumor cells that comprise the tumor microenvironment. A comprehensive approach to tumor interrogation requires efficient tissue dissociation to facilitate analysis at the single-cell level. Compared to current methods, single-cell analysis of tumor derived cell suspensions by flow cytometry has the potential to provide a more thorough understanding of the many subpopulations within the tumor microenvironment and the cell-to-cell interactions that govern this space. Here, we demonstrate an efficient workflow that enables comprehensive cell analysis of solid tumors from breast cancers. After dissociating human breast cancer biopsies from primary tumors into cell suspension, we analyzed the immune compartment and the cancer/stromal cell compartment by multicolor flow cytometry, using 26 markers. A comprehensive analysis of this data set reveals the heterogeneity within the tumor microenvironment on a phenotypic level, which might have potentially significant correlations to the clinical status and molecular phenotype of the cancer. These results encourage the expansion of the use of flow cytometry as a means of solid tumor biopsy analysis, highlighting the potential clinical value of this approach in disease management. Citation Format: Aaron J. Middlebrook, Peter Llontop, Mary Beth Hanley, Warren Porter, Friedrich Hahn, Eileen Snowden, Rainer Blaesius, Smita Ghanekar. Deep phenotyping of dissociated solid tumor cells from breast cancer specimens. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2423.