Ovarian cancer immunogenicity is governed by a narrow subset of progenitor tissue-resident memory T cells

Abstract

Despite repeated associations between T cell infiltration and outcome, human ovarian cancer remains poorly responsive to immunotherapy. We report that the hallmarks of tumor recognition in ovarian cancer-infiltrating T cells are primarily restricted to tissue-resident memory (TRM) cells. Single-cell RNA/TCR/ATAC sequencing of 83,454 CD3⁺CD8⁺CD103⁺CD69⁺ TRM cells and immunohistochemistry of 122 high-grade serous ovarian cancers shows that only progenitor (TCF1^low) tissue-resident T cells (TRM_stem cells), but not recirculating TCF1⁺ T cells, predict ovarian cancer outcome. TRM_stem cells arise from transitional recirculating T cells, which depends on antigen affinity/persistence, resulting in oligoclonal, trogocytic, effector lymphocytes that eventually become exhausted. Therefore, ovarian cancer is indeed an immunogenic disease, but that depends on ∼13% of CD8⁺ tumor-infiltrating T cells (∼3% of CD8⁺ clonotypes), which are primed against high-affinity antigens and maintain waves of effector TRM-like cells. Our results define the signature of relevant tumor-reactive T cells in human ovarian cancer, which could be applicable to other tumors with unideal mutational burden.

Keywords: immuno-oncology; neoantigen; ovarian cancer; tissue-resident memory-like T cell; tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte.