Dysfunctional CD8+ T Cells Remain Active in Melanoma Tumor Microenvironment
Source: Cancer Therapy Advisor, March 2019
The ecology of immune cell populations within tumor microenvironments importantly contributes to tumor responses to immunotherapy but the details of these interactions are not yet completely understood. Using RNA sequencing data, authors of a study published in Cell report that many CD8+ T cells in the melanoma microenvironment are becoming progressively dysfunctional states yet remain highly proliferative—and that the abundance of these cells is associated with tumor recognition.
T-cell receptor (TCR) and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data for 25 patients with melanoma revealed a large compartment of CD8+ immune T cells within the tumor microenvironment that exhibit progressive states of T-cell dysfunction while continuing to proliferate and differentiate, researchers reported in Cell.1
The findings are the latest evidence of how CD8+ T cells behave in tumor microenvironments.1,2