Fig. 6: Summary of immune cell features in the blood and tissues of patients with ESCC.

Schematic overview of the study and key findings in 25 patients with matched blood, adjacent nontumor tissue and tumor, profiled by CyTOF (42-marker panel) and multiplex immunohistochemistry (mIHC). Top left: t-SNE maps depicting major immune lineages. Left: stacked bars summarising compartmental frequencies across blood, adjacent tissue and tumor. Right: illustrative shifts with disease context—enrichment of CD8⁺ TEMRA and CD8⁺ naïve T cells in blood versus tissue, increased γδ T cells with nodal metastasis, and redistribution of classical/non-classical monocytes (CD14/CD16)—and a stage gradient (early→late). Bottom left: conceptual tumor immune microenvironment under immunotherapy; responders (R) vs. nonresponders (NR). Features associated with response are highlighted (↑ CD4⁺CD39⁺ T cells, ↑ CD8⁺CD39⁺ T cells, ↑ PD-L1⁺ macrophages). Bottom right: performance of CD39, CD103 and PD-1 for response prediction (ROC/AUC) and survival associations (Kaplan–Meier) in the ECGEA ESCC cohort and pan-cancer immunotherapy datasets. Schematic created with BioRender.com