Figure 1.

T_SL cells drive and maintain CD8⁺ T cell responses in cancer after ICB. Naïve and T_SL CD8⁺ T cells are primed and activated in the tumor draining lymph node (TDLN) or tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) within the tumor by conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) that present tumor derived antigen. A portion of these activated T_SL cells reside in the TDLN and maintain a reservoir that migrate and infiltrate the tumor microenvironment (TME). Maintenance of T_SL cells has yet to be fully determined within these immunological niches. Without ICB, following activation, T_SL cells infiltrate tumors and rapidly undergo exhaustion in the presence of persistent antigen stimulation. While transitory effector CD8⁺ T cells (T_TE) cells differentiate from T_SL cells, T_TE quickly adopt a late dysfunctional (T_LD) phenotype but can carry a level of some tumor control through cytotoxic cytokines and tumor cell targeting. Upon ICB, the T_SL population undergoes self-renewal and proliferation, giving rise to the T_TE subset and this supports the majority of the CD8⁺ T cell antitumoral response, leading to tumor control.