Tumor Microenvironment

Tumor microenvironment features influence cancer biology, progression, treatment response, and patient outcomes. The tumor microenvironment includes malignant cells, immune infiltrates, stromal components, vasculature, and their spatial arrangement. Inflammation is an established hallmark of cancer; tumors exist within and are sustained by an inflammatory environment. The tumor microenvironment directly blocks vitamin D absorption and function through all three of its defining conditions simultaneously. Tumors thrive in environments characterized by inflammation, hypoxia, and acidity. Routine H&E-stained whole-slide images contain substantial information about tumor microenvironment features. Because OpenTME slides come from TCGA, its measurements can be paired with TCGA clinical, genomic, transcriptomic, and molecular annotations. OpenTME is intended to support H&E-based spatial biology research, biomarker discovery, immune phenotyping, survival modeling, and computational pathology method development.