Spatial analysis of malignant-immune cell interactions in the tumor microenvironment using topological data analysis (opens in new tab)

The spatial interactions between malignant and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment are important for tumor immunobiology and patient outcomes. However, analytical tools that can extract rigorous yet interpretable spatial features and link them to patient outcomes remain limited. We propose a framework integrating TDA with statistical approaches to extract interpretable spatial features characterizing malignant-immune interactions. We introduce Topological Malignant Region (TopMR), whic...