Rethinking Lymphatic Vessels and Antitumor Immunity

Abstract

Lymphatic vessels facilitate fluid homeostasis, immune cell trafficking, and lipid transport, and contribute to solid tumor progression as routes of metastasis. Given new evidence that lymphatic vessels both correlate with intratumoral lymphocytes and directly suppress immune function, I reevaluate the passive lymphatic vessel paradigm and discuss its relevance to antitumor immunity.

Keywords: T cells; immunotherapy; lymphatic vessels; solid tumors.