Recently, we interrogated public microarray databases with regard to the expression patterns of metagenes corresponding to major immune cell subtypes present in malignant tumors. This analysis, which involved approximately 3,500 tumor samples, revealed organ-specific differences in the composition of the immune infiltrate as well as in the correlation among distinct cell-type specific metagenes, reflecting changes in the functional organization of the anticancer immune response.
Keywords: Breast cancer; colorectal carcinoma; melanoma non-small cell lung cancer; meta-analysis of microarrays.