In addition to the blood test, the researchers identified nine cellular neighborhoods, or spatial ecotypes, that cancers of all types share and some of which correlate with a tumor’s response to immunotherapy and a patient’s prognosis. Because the blood test can be performed repeatedly, clinicians may soon have real-time access to information about which types of therapies are likely to be most successful.

“To date, cancer therapy has been very much like whack-a-mole,” said Aaron Newman, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical data science.

“We have targeted therapies that are effective against cancers with certain mutations, but many patients with similar tumors respond differently to therapy and have widely variable clinical outcomes. What have we been overlooking? The ecosystem of nonmalignant cells around the tumor.”