Making sense of <scp>TILs</scp> : recommendations for morphological assessment of tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes in gastro‐oesophageal carcinoma

In the era of immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancers, the need for prognostic biomarkers to identify patients most likely to achieve a durable response has become increasingly more relevant. Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have gained significant interest, as they can be evaluated using standard haematoxylin and eosin-stained slides, making it a widely accessible and cost-effective biomarker. In addition to their practicality, TILs provide prognostic insights into the interplay between the immune system and tumour cells. While the morphological assessment of TILs has been standardised in breast cancer, comprehensive guidelines for their evaluation in gastro-oesophageal carcinomas (GEC) are still lacking. This narrative review examines the current literature on the composition, clinical implications and therapeutic utility of TILs in GEC. These insights are used to propose a framework with recommendations for standardised evaluation and reporting of TILs in GEC, while also highlighting pitfalls specific to GEC pathology. These recommendations serve as a vital first step towards the widespread use and validation of TILs as a biomarker.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Histopathology
Published
2026-02-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/his.70089
Primary Topic
Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Making sense of TILs : recommendations for morphological assessment of tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes in gastro‐oesophageal carcinoma

Filip Van Herpe, Andrey Khramtsov, Daniel Ehinger, Haruto Nishida et al.
Histopathology
Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
article

Making sense of TILs : recommendations for morphological assessment of tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes in gastro‐oesophageal carcinoma

Filip Van Herpe, Andrey Khramtsov, Daniel Ehinger, Haruto Nishida, S. Michiels, M. Chalabi, Yelena Y. Janjigian, Amarpreet Bhalla, Galina Khramtsova, Sanna Steen, Toshihiro Haga, Caner Ercan, Hoel Kervadec, Thomas Papathomas, Ahmad P. Tafti, Akira I. Hida, Liudmila L. Kodach, Daniel Sur, Donghui Huang, Shinnosuke Morikawa, Ylva Weeda, Selim Sevim, Weiqi Sheng, Balazs Acs, R. Salgado, Hardas Alexandros, Anna Ehinger, Cornelia M Focke, Hanneke W M van Laarhoven, Nickolas Littlefield, Nianyi Li, Sybren L Meijer, Francisco Sanchez‐Vega, Qiangqiang Gu, Sherene Loi, Michael Vieth, Atsushi Tanaka
article en

Abstract

In the era of immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancers, the need for prognostic biomarkers to identify patients most likely to achieve a durable response has become increasingly more relevant. Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have gained significant interest, as they can be evaluated using standard haematoxylin and eosin-stained slides, making it a widely accessible and cost-effective biomarker. In addition to their practicality, TILs provide prognostic insights into the interplay between the immune system and tumour cells. While the morphological assessment of TILs has been standardised in breast cancer, comprehensive guidelines for their evaluation in gastro-oesophageal carcinomas (GEC) are still lacking. This narrative review examines the current literature on the composition, clinical implications and therapeutic utility of TILs in GEC. These insights are used to propose a framework with recommendations for standardised evaluation and reporting of TILs in GEC, while also highlighting pitfalls specific to GEC pathology. These recommendations serve as a vital first step towards the widespread use and validation of TILs as a biomarker.

Histopathology
Lurie Children's Hospital (US), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (US), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US), Karolinska University Hospital (SE), Royal Veterinary College (GB), Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University (CN), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (US), Harvard University (US), Inserm (FR), Oregon Health & Science University (US), University of Pittsburgh (US), Lund University (SE), Oita University (JP), Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy (RO), Vestre Viken Hospital Trust (NO), Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (AU), Institut Gustave Roussy (FR), Bayreuth Medical Center (DE), Karolinska Institutet (SE), The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NL), University of Chicago (US), Matsuyama Shimin Hospital (JP), Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (CN), La Ligue Contre le Cancer (FR), Europe Hospitals (BE), Quantitative BioSciences (US), Institute of Oncology Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta (RO), Antwerp University Hospital (BE), Amsterdam Neuroscience (NL), Oncode Institute (NL), Computational Diagnostics (United States) (US), Sapporo Kosei General Hospital (JP), Helsingborgs lasarett (SE), Skåne University Hospital (SE), Amsterdam University Medical Centers (NL), Dietrich Bonhoeffer Klinikum (DE), Tokyo National Hospital (JP), Cancer Center Amsterdam (NL), University of Birmingham (GB), Catholic University of America (US), University of Amsterdam (NL), KU Leuven (BE)
KWF Kankerbestrijding
Openalex Percentile: Top 64%
Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.