Cancer and Cytometry.

Abstract

What would cancer research, diagnosis, and monitoring be without cytometry technologies? Indeed, the first commercial instrument, the Phywe ICP, was designed for quantifying DNA content in cancer cells by Wolfgang Göhde from Münster, Germany more than 50 years ago 1. Since then, the use of cytometry in clinical diagnosis and research of malignancies has diversified and developed, including now such diverse quantitative single cell analysis techniques as mass cytometry 2, image cytometry 3, or label free 4 technologies and various methods to characterize and count circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood 5. In this issue, I have compiled a small collection of publications around cancer. The first is a multinational study on an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody for myeloma treatment by Adams II and colleagues (this issue, pp. 279–289). This article is Editor's choice of the month. The authors use Mass cytometry and complex immunophenotyping and present evidence of immunomodulation induced by the therapy. Noteworthy, the manuscript describes in detail quality control and provides publicly available original measurements in the FlowRepository to support reproducible science. In a manuscript by Chumakova and colleagues (this issue, pp. 290–301), the authors investigate cancer stem cell dynamics by image cytometry. To this end, they developed a pipeline consisting of the full process from cell staining to single cell-derived data termed HASCIA. Among other findings, they report the influence of local cell density and SOX2 expression for maintaining stem cell-like phenotype. Finally, Wei and colleagues (this issue, pp. 302–308) demonstrate label free discrimination of three different cancer cell lines by individual light scattering patterns. Whereas conventional light scattering obtained by flow cytometry could not distinguish the different cell lines, individual light scattering patterns in combination with machine learning clearly improved classification. Thus, cytometry has an essential role in cancer therapy evaluation and detection. Consequently, we are appointing Dr. Yolanda Mahnke as a new associate editor on the board of Cytometry Part A this month. She is the first new AE since last November 6. Now, let me briefly introduce Yolanda Mahnke to you. Yolanda Mahnke has been a reviewer of Cytometry Part A articles for many years, and recently joined the journal's editorial board. Since early during her graduate work on T-cell memory, flow cytometry became a central technology in her research. In fact, flow cytometry quickly became more than just a tool, with her research bringing forth seminal publications introducing the concept of primary, secondary, and tertiary antigens for panel development 7, and the spillover-spreading matrix 8. In 2010, with her colleagues Mario Roederer and Pratip Chattopadhyay, she initiated the OMIP publication platform 9 which has become a valuable asset to the flow cytometry community. Overall, Dr. Mahnke published so far seven out of now 53 published OMIPs (OMIP-53, pp. 264–267) Dr. Mahnke is an internationally renowned flow cytometry expert with extensive experience in tumor immunology and infection immunology. Her work at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the Lausanne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, NIH's Vaccine Research Center, and Prof. Carl June's CAR T-cell program at the University of Pennsylvania centered on the evolution of T-cell responses in the context of tumors, infections, vaccinations, or cellular therapies, with a particular focus on longitudinal changes in their activation and differentiation status, as well as in their functionality. The development of flow cytometry-based assays and protocols formed an integral part of her correlative studies to elucidate useful biomarkers as well as factors relevant for treatment success. Dr. Mahnke is now president of FlowKnowHow LLC, a flow cytometry consulting service providing education, as well as assistance with experimental design, panel development, troubleshooting, data analyses and interpretation, and reporting. She was an ISAC Marylou Ingram Scholar (2014–2018) and has been active in ISAC, serving on the Scientific Communications Committee, the ISAC Associated Societies Committee, as well as the Programming Committee for several CYTO conferences. As an AE, Dr. Mahnke will be responsible for the field of Cancer Immunology and OMIPs. Yolanda Mahnke, PhD