Laser speckle rheological microscopy reveals the associations between micro-mechanical properties and immune response of the tumor microenvironment

Mechanical alterations that accompany neoplasia are believed to drive the hallmarks of cancer, including immune modulation. Here, we exploit laser Speckle rHEologicAl micRoscopy (SHEAR), to evaluate the shear viscoelastic modulus, G*(x,y,ω), of breast carcinoma specimens and to investigate the associations between G* and the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes(TILs). Results demonstrate that in high-TILs tumors, the spatially averaged |G*| is significantly reduced and the gradient of |G*| is significantly increased. Moreover, stroma-to-epithelium contrast of |G*| trends higher, whereas entropy trends lower. These outcomes suggest that the micro-mechanical properties of the tumor microenvironment likely correlate with the immune response.