Gamma delta T cell infiltrate has been reported to be favorable in several types of tumors as non-small cell lung cancer (NSLC) and gastric cancers. However, other reports have associated gamma delta T cells with an unfavourable prognosis as is the case of gall-bladder cancer and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Very recently (1) it has been reported that in cervical cancer a higher number of gamma delta T cells in the tumor microenvironment is associated with a better prognosis.
In this article (1), after measuring the number of gamma delta T cells detected by immunohistochemistry, the overall survival (OS) was significantly improved in the group that had more gamma delta T cells infiltrate. These cells are in the tumor stroma and have a predominant phenotype of effector cells, expressing cytotoxicity-associated genes including GNLY, NKG7, GZMA, GZMB, GZMH, GZMK, and PRF1. The authors hypothesized that these cells could be responsible not only for the lysis of tumor cells but also for the lysis of regulatory CD4+ cells making the tumor microenvironment more immunogenic and, probably, augmenting the effect of immunotherapy.
When analyzing the amount of gamma delta T cell infiltrate in different groups defined by the type of treatment a suggestive correlation with overall survival in patients who received radiotherapy alone was detected.
We think that analyzing the repertoire of gamma / delta T cells in the tumor sample could help to understand the complex role that gamma delta T cells play in cancer biology. It could be possible that certain V or J genes / alleles or specific combinations of them or even certain CDR3, possibly public, could be associated with specific situations in different kinds of cancer.
Reference:
(1) Multiomics profiling reveals the benefits of gamma-delta (γδ) T lymphocytes for improving the tumor microenvironment, immunotherapy efficacy and prognosis in cervical cancer. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2024;12:e008355. doi:10.1136/jitc-2023-008355
Picture: γδ T Cell Receptor at the Cell Membrane https://nisonline.net/
Crystal structure PDB 1hxm
ImmuneRepertoires can provide you gamma / delta repertoire analysis from FFPE samples