Phenotypic and spatial heterogeneity of CD8⁺ tumour infiltrating lymphocytes

CD8⁺ T cells are the workhorses executing adaptive anti-tumour response, and targets of various cancer immunotherapies. Latest advances have unearthed the sheer heterogeneity of CD8⁺ tumour infiltrating lymphocytes, and made it increasingly clear that the bulk of the endogenous and therapeutically induced tumour-suppressive momentum hinges on a particular selection of CD8⁺ T cells with advantageous attributes, namely the memory and stem-like exhausted subsets. A scrutiny of the contemporary perception of CD8⁺ T cells in cancer and the subgroups of interest along with the factors arbitrating their infiltration contextures, presented herein, may serve as the groundwork for future endeavours to probe further into the regulatory networks underlying their differentiation and migration, and optimise T cell-based immunotherapies accordingly.