Immune Privilege Within: Regulatory T Cells Tip the Balance in Favor of Lymph Node Metastasis

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.