Fig. 9. Schematic of hypothesized positive feedback loop between immune cells and cancer cells leading to metastasis and immunosuppression.

In cancer, mesenchymal cancer cells have been shown to be associated with immunosuppression and exhaustion of T-cells in the TME. In our paper, we demonstrate one way in which mesenchymal cells may exhaust CD8⁺ T-cells in the TME of epithelial ovarian cancer. Additionally, we show there is an association between infiltration of immune cells, particularly T-cells, and EMT. It is currently unknown whether cancer cells instigate the infiltration of T-cells after undergoing EMT, or whether the initial infiltration of T-cells and other immune cells triggers EMT in cancer cells. We propose this model as a potential future direction, where the relationship between immune cell infiltration and EMT can be further investigated.