Ongoing adaptive immune responses in the microenvironment of melanoma metastases
A large body of evidence supports the idea that the tumor environment is immunosuppressive, notably for T lymphocytes. Yet, in some tumor types, the presence of tumor-infiltrating T cells has favorable prognostic value. In order to better understand the functional value of T cells in human tumors, we focused on cutaneous metastases of melanoma and observed that some of them host ectopic lymphoid structures in which B cell, and possibly T cell, responses take place. This observation is discussed in the context of current views on immunosuppression in tumors.
melanoma metastasis lymphoid neogenesis germinal center humoral response iga