Benchmarking Spatial Co-Localization Methods for Single-Cell Multiplex Imaging Data with Applications to High-Grade Serous Ovarian and Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

Single-cell multiplex imaging (scMI) measures cell locations and phenotypes within a tissue and can be used to understand the tumor microenvironment. In scMI studies, it is often of interest to quantify spatial co-localization of immune cells and its association with clinical outcomes; however, it remains unknown which of the many available spatial indices have adequate power to detect spatial within-sample co-localization and its association with patient outcomes, such as survival. In this study, the performance of six frequentist metrics of spatial co-localization used in scMI studies were evaluated.