Cancer cells impair monocyte-mediated T cell stimulation to evade immunity

Abstract The tumour microenvironment is programmed by cancer cells and substantially influences anti-tumour immune responses 1,2 . Within the tumour microenvironment, CD8 + T cells undergo full effector differentiation and acquire cytotoxic anti-tumour functions in specialized niches 3–7 . Although interactions with type 1 conventional dendritic cells have been implicated in this process 3–5,8–10 , the underlying cellular players and molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here we show that inflammatory monocytes can adopt a pivotal role in intratumoral T cell stimulation. These cells express Cxcl9 , Cxcl10 and Il15 , but in contrast to type 1 conventional dendritic cells, which cross-present…