Fig. 3

Distinct spatial distribution of immune cells across TLS in diverse locations. A Illustration of the distance analysis involving centre and surrounding cells. Red dots: centre cells; green dots: surrounding cells. The white translucent circle represents the radius. Effective score = number of paired surrounding cells and tumour cells/number of centre cells. Scale bar: 100 μm. B Comparison of the effective scores between TC-Tumour, TC-TLS, and TC-Stroma regions. TC-Tumour, tumour in the tumour core; TC-TLS: TLS in the tumour core; TC-Stroma, stroma regions in the tumour core. Each point represents one patient. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 and not significant (ns). C Comparison of the effective scores between IM-non-TLS and IM-TLS. Red dots: IM-non-TLS; green dots: IM-TLS. IM-TLS, TLS in the invasion margin; IM-Non-TLS, invasion margin excluding TLS. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 and not significant (ns). D Comparison of the effective scores between N-non-TLS and N-TLS. Red dots: N-non-TLS; Green dots: N-TLS. N-TLS, TLS in the normal tissue; N-Non-TLS, normal tissue excluding TLS. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 and not significant (ns). E Comparison of the effective scores between TC-TLS, IM-TLS, and N-TLS. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 and not significant (ns). F, G Five robust density and spatial score (DSS) were selected by the LASSO Cox regression model. H, I Kaplan–Meier curve showing the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rate differences between high and low-DSS groups. TC-TLS were identified in a total of 52 GC patients