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IMMUcan, Petit Bruxelles (2026)

19/12/2025

As 2025 comes to a close, we look back with gratitude on the progress IMMUcan has made through the years: from advancing multi-omics data generation to deepening our understanding of the tumour microenvironment, together with an outstanding community of partners.

Thank you to all patients, clinicians, researchers, and collaborators whose commitment continues to make this initiative possible.

We wish you a restful holiday season and a new year filled with health, discovery, and collaboration.

✨ Happy Holidays from the IMMUcan team! ✨

18/12/2025

🔬 IMMUcan at ESMO Immuno-Oncology 2025 | Poster Highlight II

The second IMMUcan poster featured at presented real-world data from the IMMUcan early-stage TNBC cohort. The research focusing on patients treated with neoadjuvant chemo-(immuno) therapy was presented by Camille Goudemant from Institut Jules Bordet.

Over a 5-year period, the team observed:
✅ Evolving neoadjuvant TNBC practices across Europe
✅ Decreasing anthracycline use and increasing use of carboplatin and immunotherapy
✅ Improving pCR rates over time, highest with KEYNOTE-522–like regimens and in tumors with high TIL levels

While survival data are not yet available, surrogate markers such as pCR and TILs provide valuable insights into treatment effectiveness in real-world settings. These data support the feasibility and effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy in early TNBC across Europe.

IMMUcan highlights the power of collaborative, data-sharing initiatives that combine clinical outcomes with deep molecular and immune profiling. Ongoing multi-omics analyses will further refine our understanding of TNBC biology and treatment response.

👉 Learn more: www.immucan.eu

16/12/2025

🔬 IMMUcan at ESMO Immuno-Oncology 2025 | Poster Highlight 1

Last week, IMMUcan was featured at with two poster presentations. For the first poster, researchers from the IMMUcan team presented results from a comprehensive multi-omics analysis of advanced TNBC patients treated with chemo-immunotherapy in the SYNERGY trial and EORTC-1553-SPECTA.

While immune checkpoint inhibitors have improved outcomes in TNBC, most patients eventually develop resistance. Beyond PD-L1, predictive biomarkers remain limited, and how tumors adapt early during treatment is still poorly understood.

By integrating bulk and single-cell RNA-seq, whole-exome sequencing, spatial and imaging technologies, the study identified:
▪️ Distinct immune and molecular profiles associated with treatment outcomes at baseline
▪️ Better outcomes linked to immune-enriched, proliferative tumors with higher CD8⁺ T cells, Tregs and plasma cells
▪️ Poor prognosis associated with angiogenic, fibrotic, immune-excluded tumor microenvironments and PIK3CA pathway alterations
▪️ Early on-treatment dynamics showing PD-L1 downregulation on tumor cells, macrophage infiltration and a TGFB1/IL-10-driven immunosuppressive milieu

Resistance to chemo-immunotherapy appears to involve a fibro-vascular reprogramming of the tumor microenvironment, opening the door to new TME-based biomarkers and therapeutic targets to be tested in future clinical trials.

👏 Congratulations to the authors and to all collaborators across academia, hospitals, research institutes and industry who made this work possible.

Elisa Agostinetto | Nicolaas Van Renne | Andrea Joaquín García | Marie Morfouace | Marcin Możejko | Zoë Denis | Henoch Hong, David Venet | Robin Liechti, Stephanie Tissot-Renaud | Mattia Rediti | Xavier Catteau | Daniel Schulz | Delphine LOIRAT | Philippe Aftimos MD | Emanuela Romano| Hans Wildiers | Ewa Szczurek | Christos Sotiriou | Laurence Buisseret

20/11/2025

Cellohood represents a meaningful step forward for a better understanding of tumor–immune interactions. Its ability to capture full molecular details, operate across different levels of granularity, and connect spatial patterns with clinical outcomes makes it a powerful addition to how we study complex tissues within the consortium.

It’s also great to see this work now out as a preprint, as it represents an important milestone that highlights both the quality of the science and the collaborative effort behind it. Making these methods publicly available will help broaden the impact and support progress across the spatial biology community.

Congratulations to all authors from our partner institutions across Europe. This is a fantastic achievement that perfectly reflects the collaborative spirit of IMMUcan.

Read the pre-print: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.10.687184v1

03/11/2025

Last week, the IMMUcan consortium met at EORTC in Brussels for two days of inspiring discussions and collaborative data exploration (27–28 October 2025).

Our incredible IMMUcan team — researchers, clinicians, and data scientists from across Europe — came together to share results, challenge ideas, and set the next steps in understanding the tumour microenvironment and the immune response across cancer types. The meeting was a true showcase of the passion, expertise, and teamwork driving IMMUcan forward.

Over the two days, participants explored:

New data from molecular, cellular, and clinical analyses, including spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, and plasma profiling.

Cohort updates across breast, colorectal, renal, lung, and head and neck cancers, highlighting progress from deep profiling and imaging studies.

Multi-modal data integration approaches linking spatial and bulk omics to identify pan-cancer spatial domains and accelerate insights into cancer-immune interactions.

The discussions reinforced what makes IMMUcan unique: a community of experts united by a shared mission to translate complex data into meaningful advances for patients.

A big thank you to all the teams, coordinators, and contributors for their dedication and brilliance. 🔬

24/10/2025

Science is a team effort!

IMMUcan wouldn’t be possible without the collaboration of clinicians, researchers, data scientists, and patients across Europe.

By pooling expertise, we’ve built one of the largest tumour–immune profiling efforts to date. Together, we are:

✅Standardising and curating data across multiple cancer types
✅Building a sustainable platform for future research
✅ Translating findings into evidence that supports better patient outcomes

Every partner adds a piece to the puzzle. Working together is the only way to turn complex biology into real-world impact.

Learn more about our consortium: immucan.eu

10/10/2025

What is spatial transcriptomics, and why does IMMUcan use it?

Traditional sequencing tells us what genes are expressed, but not where. Spatial transcriptomics adds this missing layer by mapping gene activity in its original tissue context.

In IMMUcan, this means we can:

➡️See where immune cells and tumour cells “talk” to each other
➡️Identify hotspots of resistance or immune evasion
➡️Link spatial patterns to treatment response

It’s like turning a static snapshot into a living map of the tumour microenvironment.

04/10/2025

We are proud to announce that IMMUcan will be showcased at the (26–27 November, Brussels) — the largest European gathering dedicated to patients and patient leadership.

For us, this is a unique opportunity to connect with patients, policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders across Europe. We will explore together how patient-centred preparedness in action can strengthen resilience, equity, and trust in healthcare systems.

Learn more & pre-register here: epfcongress.eu

26/09/2025

Next week, Henoch Hong will carry IMMUcan’s voice to London, where the 2025 Biomarkers and Precision Medicine Conference (30 September – 01 October) gathers leading minds to explore the future of personalised healthcare.

This year’s agenda brings together global leaders to discuss:
🔹 Translating biomarker discoveries into clinical practice
🔹 Multi-omics approaches to precision medicine
🔹 Regulatory frameworks for innovation
🔹 Patient-centric strategies to accelerate impact

Henoch will be presenting on IMMUcan’s European effort to profile immune-oncology biomarkers and how it can help unlock new therapies and deliver personalised care to patients.

At IMMUcan, we believe that breaking silos and working across academia, industry, and patient organisations is the key to transforming the future of oncology.

📍 If you’ll be in London, don’t miss the opportunity to meet Henoch and exchange ideas on how to push precision medicine forward.

12/09/2025

New publication in Cell Reports Methods by Cell Press

The IMMUcan consortium is proud to present our latest work on scalable pipelines for large-scale multiplexed imaging (mIF & IMC) in FFPE tumour tissues.

Over six years, our collaborative effort enabled:

✅ The analysis of over 12,000 slides (7,500 mIF + 5,000 IMC) from more than 2,500 patients across five cancer indications.
✅ The creation of IFQuant, a web-based mIF analyses software designed for large-scale datasets, fully integrated with LIMS allowing reliable sample tracking, standardised analysis, and reproducible results at scale.
✅ The establishment of a public resource of ~340,000 manually annotated cells, which will support benchmarking and accelerate new computational methods for single-cell phenotyping.
✅ Demonstrated consistency between mIF and IMC modalities, and implemented tools & automation to streamline workflows.

This work offers the scientific community not just novel methodologies, but also open resources and tools that can serve as references for future large-scale cancer research. It will aid biomarker discovery, improve patient stratification, and bolster reproducibility in image-based tumour microenvironment studies.

A special thank you to all the authors and contributors of this paper: Nils Eling, Julien Dorier, Sylvie Rusakiewicz, Robin Liechti, Preethi Devanand, Ph.D., Michelle Daniel, Jonas Windhager, Bruno Palau Fernandez, Sophie Déglise, Despland Lucie, Abdelkader Benyagoub, Marcin Możejko, Dawid Uchal, Ewa Szczurek, Alexander Loboda, Daaf Sandkuijl, Nikesh Parsotam, Henoch Hong, Marie Morfouace, Nicolas Guex, George Coukos, Bernd Bodenmiller, Stephanie Tissot-Renaud, Daniel Schulz

Read the article here: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-methods/fulltext/S2667-2375(25)00206-1

02/09/2025

What if we could anticipate a tumour’s next move, even before it happens?

At IMMUcan, that’s exactly what we’re working toward.

By studying the microenvironment in unprecedented detail, we’re learning how cancer adapts, hides, and fights back.

Our -omics analyses across thousands of samples allow us to track how tumours:
🔹 Evade the immune system
🔹 Stop responding to treatment
🔹 Develop resistance over time

Every insight brings us closer to smarter, more resilient .

26/08/2025

The immune system is powerful, but cancer can sometimes outsmart it.

IMMUcan is helping us understand how.

By combining spatial transcriptomics, single-cell sequencing, and proteomics, our researchers are mapping the mechanisms of immune evasion across tumour types.

For example:
-Some tumours suppress antigen presentation.
- Others create immunosuppressive environments.
- Many adapt dynamically under treatment pressure.

Why does this matter?

Because immune evasion is a key driver of treatment failure. The more we understand it, the better we can design therapies that keep the immune system engaged. And the cancer on the defensive.

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