Extended Data Fig. 8: Correlation between cancer-induced nerve injury (CINI), immuno-suppressive inflammation, and anti-tumoral immunity phenotypes by spatial transcriptomics.

Spatial transcriptomic analysis of tumour samples from an independent treatment naïve cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma patient cohort (n = 11). We examined the spatial relationships among three functional phenotypes: CINI, anti-tumoral immunity, and immunosuppressive inflammation. The anti-tumoral immunity phenotype included CD8A⁺GZMB⁺PRF1⁺ and CD4⁺IL2⁺ T cells, as well as CD86⁺IRF8⁺TNF⁺ and CD68⁺PSMB10⁺HLADQA1⁺HLADRA⁺HLADRB1⁺ antigen-presenting cells. The immunosuppressive inflammation phenotype comprised CD204⁺CD206⁺CD163⁺ and CD68⁺IL10⁺ tumour-associated macrophages, along with CD4⁺FOXP3⁺ T regulatory cells. The CINI signature included general markers for nerve detection (NEFL, NEFH, NEFM, NEUROD1, MRGPRD, TAC1, SSTR2, HAPLN4, SST) and nerve injury markers (ATF3, JUN, SOX1, SMAD1, BHLHE41, KLF7, KLF6). (a) Scatterplots show the overall correlation across the entire patient cohort. (b) Representative scatterplots showing correlations for individual patients. r, Pearson correlation coefficient.