Tumor microenvironment of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is a malignancy caused by the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1. Aggressive ATLL is refractory to conventional chemotherapy and has a poor prognosis. Better therapeutic approaches, including cancer immunotherapy, are required to improve survival and prognosis. The genetic landscape of ATLL reveals frequent genetic alterations in genes associated with immune surveillance, including major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I, CD58 antigen, and programmed cell death ligand 1. Clinicopathological investigations also revealed tumor immunity mechanisms in ATLL, including immune checkpoint molecules, MHC molecules, tumor-associated macrophages, and chemokines. However, the tumor microenvironment of ATLL remains complex because ATLL itself originates from T-cells, usually expressing regulatory T-cell markers. In this review, we discuss the recent literature describing the tumor microenvironment of ATLL.