Immunohistochemical and transcriptomic characterization of T and myeloid cell infiltrates in canine malignant melanoma

Abstract Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy can provide significant clinical benefit in patients with certain cancer types including melanoma; however, objective responses are only observed for a subset of patients. Mucosal melanoma is a rare melanoma subtype associated with a poor prognosis and, compared with cutaneous melanoma, is significantly less responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Spontaneous canine tumours have emerged as valuable models to inform human cancer studies. In contrast to human melanoma, most canine melanomas are mucosal—an incidence that may be leveraged to better understand the subtype in humans. However, a more comprehensive understanding of the immune landscape of the canine disease is required. Here, we quantify tumour infiltrative T and myeloid cells in canine mucosal ( n = 13) and cutaneous ( n = 5) melanomas using immunohistochemical analysis of CD3 and MAC387 expression, respectively. Gene expression analysis using the Canine IO NanoString panel was also performed to identify genes and pathways associated with immune cell infiltration. T and myeloid cell densities were variable with geometric means of 158.7 cells/mm 2 and 166.7 cells/mm 2 , respectively. Elevated T cell infiltration was associated with increased expression of cytolytic genes as well as genes encoding the coinhibitory checkpoint molecules PD‐1, CTLA‐4, TIM‐3 and TIGIT; whereas increased myeloid cell infiltration was associated with elevated expression of protumourigenic cytokines. These data provide a basic characterization of the tumour microenvironment of canine malignant melanoma and suggest that, like human melanoma, inherent variability in anti‐tumour T cell responses exists and that a subset of canine melanomas may respond better to immunomodulation.