Single-cell profiling defines the prognostic benefit of CD39high tissue resident memory CD8+ T cells in luminal-like breast cancer

Luminal-like breast cancer (BC) constitutes the majority of BC subtypes, but, differently from highly aggressive triple negative BC, is poorly infiltrated by the immune system. The quality of the immune infiltrate in luminal-like BCs has been poorly studied, thereby limiting further investigation of immunotherapeutic strategies. By using high-dimensional single-cell technologies, we identify heterogeneous behavior within the tissue-resident memory CD8+ T (Trm) cells infiltrating luminal-like tumors. A subset of CD127- CD39(hi) Trm cells, preferentially present in the tumor compared to the adjacent normal breast tissue or peripheral blood, retains enhanced degranulation capacity compared to the CD127+ CD39(lo) Trm counterpart ex vivo, and is specifically associated with positive prognosis. Nevertheless, such prognostic benefit is lost in the presence of highly-suppressive CCR8(hi) ICOShi IRF4+ effector Tregs. Thus, combinatorial strategies aiming at boosting Trm function and infiltration while relieving from Treg-mediated immunosuppression should be investigated to achieve proper tumor control in luminal-like BCs.Losurdo et al analyze breast cancer-infiltrating T cells by single-cell technologies . The find that the extent of infiltration of a small subset of tissue-resident memory CD8+ T cells identify patients with improved survival, highlighting the importance of the specific T cell immune microenvironment.