Highlights from Recent Cancer Literature

CD8⁺ T cells undergo the process of exhaustion following persistent stimulation, leading to a diverse array of CD8⁺ T cells in tumors that express unique combinations of inhibitory receptors. While profiling breast tumors from PyMT mice, Chou and colleagues identified a new type of innate-like T cell with cytotoxic killing potential (ILTCK) that also controlled tumor progression. Using both mouse models of breast cancer as well as human colorectal cancers, they identified ILTCKs as a subset of CD8⁺ T cells with low expression of PDCD1 and TOX, both associated with T-cell exhaustion. However, ILTCKs also expressed KLRB1C (NK1.1) and GZMB and were unique in expressing CD8αα dimers and the gamma subunit of the high affinity Fc receptor for IgE (FCER1G). Unlike conventional CD8⁺ T cells, the repertoire of T-cell receptors used by ILTCKs remained very diverse, suggestive of broad tumor reactivity. Thymic ILTCKs...