Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Publication Date

4-25-2025

Journal

NPJ Precision Oncology

Abstract

Patients with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC) are usually diagnosed with advanced-stage disease, and the tumors often have immunosuppressive characteristics. Together, these factors are important for disease progression, drug resistance, and mortality. In this study, we used a combination of single-cell sequencing and spatial transcriptomics to identify the molecular mechanisms that lead to immunosuppression in HGSC. Primary tumors consistently showed a more active immune microenvironment than did omental tumors. In addition, we found that untreated primary tumors were mostly populated by dysfunctional CD4 and CD8 T cells in later stages of differentiation; this, in turn, was correlated with expression changes in the interferon α and γ pathways in epithelial cells, showing that cross-communication between the epithelial and immune compartments is important for immune suppression in HGSC. These findings could have implications for the design of clinical trials with immune-modulating drugs.

Keywords

Ovarian cancer, Cancer microenvironment

DOI

10.1038/s41698-025-00818-8

PMID

40281242

PMCID

PMC12032089

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

4-25-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

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