Fig. 2: Exhausted CD8⁺ T-cells and their precursors represent specific components of the LME of DLBCL, but not of other lymphomas, and in DLBCL are associated with longer progression-free survival.

A–F The NHL TMA was stained with antibodies against CD8, PD1, Ki67, TOX, TCF1 and Tbet (C) and counterstained with DAPI. Normal lymph node samples were stained with the same panel for comparison. Sections were recorded and processed as described in Fig. 1. Representative images of a normal lymph node, and of a representative DLBCL case are shown at high magnification in (A, B). A gallery of single channel and merged (all channels) images of the ten indicated numerically dominant tumor-infiltrating CD8⁺ T-cell populations is shown in C, arranged in the order of decreasing abundance. Asterisks point to cells of interest. The relative abundance (in % of all cells with a DAPI⁺ nucleus) of the populations in C, plus marker-negative (“other”) populations, is shown in D in the form of stacked bar plots for all cases included in the TMA. Patients are arrayed on the x-axis and sorted by diagnosis. The relative abundance (in % of all cells with a DAPI⁺ nucleus) of the indicated populations as detected in the four main lymphoma entities is shown in E (arranged by decreasing abundance); each symbol represents one case. Statistical comparisons were performed by one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s T3 correction; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.005. Kaplan-Meier curves showing progression-free survival of patients with large (>median) relative to small (≤median) infiltrates of the indicated prognostically relevant CD8⁺ T-cell populations are presented in (F). P-values were calculated by Kaplan-Meier log-rank test. Note that in C–F, markers that are negative do not feature in the population designation; for example, the population “CD8⁺ PD1⁺” is negative for all other markers. Please see suppl. Fig. 2 for overall survival Kaplan-Meier curves.