Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 9, 2025

Author Spotlight: A Model to Study the Systemic and Local Dynamics of CD8+ T Cells During LN Metastasis
Published on: January 26, 2024
Immune Privilege Within: Regulatory T Cells Tip the Balance in Favor of Lymph Node Metastasis
Lutz Menzel1, Timothy P Padera1
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Abstract:
Kahn and colleagues reveal that lymph nodes (LN) provide an intrinsically immunosuppressive niche that prevents effector function of activated CD8+ T cells in LNs and allows immunogenic tumor cells to survive and drive cancer progression, independent of tumor-derived preconditioning. By locally suppressing IL2 availability, regulatory T cells in LNs impair CD8+ T-cell cytotoxicity-a mechanism with important implications for immune checkpoint therapy and LN-targeted immunomodulation. See related article by Kahn et al., p. 1949.
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