EP16.02-015 Phenotyping Malignant Pleural Effusions with Mass Cytometry: Evidence of EMT and MET States in Late-Stage NSCLC

Malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) signify late-stage disease and are associated with poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Cytopathology is the standard approach for diagnosing MPEs, however detection of malignant cells remains limited due to scarcity and difficulty in distinguishing them from other cell types. Despite these limitations and because MPEs are often drained from patients as palliative care, studies have proposed utilizing MPEs as a method of liquid biopsy for phenotyping malignant cells and for precision immunotherapy; yet MPEs and their cellular components are inadequately studied at the single-cell level.