Issues

To determine how intratumor heterogeneity in the T-cell landscape correlates with the genomic landscape and with patient outcome in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Reuben and colleagues characterized the T-cell repertoire in a cohort of 11 patients with NSCLC who had previously been subject to whole-exome sequencing. T-cell receptor (TCR) sequencing profiled 45 tumor regions across the 11 tumors and revealed a high level of intratumor heterogeneity, with differences in T-cell density, clonality, and repertoire. TCR intratumor heterogeneity was linked to neoantigen heterogeneity and was correlated with disease relapse and reduced disease-fee survival in patients with NSCLC. These findings link T-cell repertoire heterogeneity to genomic intratumor heterogeneity and relapse in NSCLC. For details, please see the article by Reuben and colleagues on page 1088.