Breast and pancreatic cancer interrupt IRF8-dependent dendritic cell development to overcome immune surveillance

Tumors employ multiple mechanisms to evade immune surveillance. One mechanism is tumor-induced myelopoiesis, whereby the expansion of immunosuppressive myeloid cells can impair tumor immunity. As myeloid cells and conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are derived from the same progenitors, we postulated that myelopoiesis might impact cDC development. The cDC subset, cDC1, which includes human CD141⁺ DCs and mouse CD103⁺ DCs, supports anti-tumor immunity by stimulating CD8⁺ T-cell responses. Here, to understand how cDC1 development changes during tumor progression, we investigated cDC bone marrow progenitors. We found localized breast and pancreatic cancers induce systemic decreases in cDC1s and their progenitors. Mechanistically, tumor-produced granulocyte-stimulating factor downregulates interferon regulatory factor-8 in cDC progenitors, and thus results in reduced cDC1 development. Tumor-induced reductions in cDC1 development impair anti-tumor CD8⁺ T-cell responses and correlate with poor patient outcomes. These data suggest immune surveillance can be impaired by tumor-induced alterations in cDC development.