Intratumoral PD-1+LAG-3+CD8+ T cells are associated with improved prognosis in gastric cancer.

Abstract

Purpose: PD-1 and LAG-3 are frequently used as markers of T cell exhaustion, yet the prognostic relevance and phenotypic characteristics of PD-1⁺LAG-3⁺CD8⁺ T cells in gastric cancer (GC) remain poorly defined. This study aimed to investigate their association with clinical outcomes and characterize their immune characteristics across independent GC cohorts.

Methods: Four independent GC cohorts were analyzed: the Zhongshan Hospital cohort (ZSGC, n = 298), The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort (TCGA, n = 371), an Immune Checkpoint Blockade cohort (ICB, n = 45), and the Yonsei cohort (n = 433). Intratumoral PD-1⁺LAG-3⁺CD8⁺ T cell infiltration was quantified by immunofluorescence staining and transcriptomic gene signature scoring. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier estimation and multivariate Cox regression. Functional characterization was performed by flow cytometry on resected GC tissue. The immune microenvironment composition was evaluated using computational analyses.

Results: PD-1⁺LAG-3⁺CD8⁺ T cells were enriched within tumors compared to adjacent normal mucosa, and their infiltration correlated with advanced tumor stage, poor differentiation, microsatellite instability, and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive molecular subtypes. High intratumoral infiltration was significantly associated with improved overall survival in both the ZSGC and TCGA cohorts, whereas single-positive PD-1⁺CD8⁺ or LAG-3⁺CD8⁺ T cells showed no such association. In the ICB cohort, higher infiltration was associated with a higher response rate to pembrolizumab. Intratumoral PD-1⁺LAG-3⁺CD8⁺ T cells exhibit an activated phenotype characterized by increased expression of CD137, IFN-γ, perforin, and CXCL13, along with elevated TCF7 and lower PD-1 levels, suggesting a tumor-reactive, pre-exhausted state. High infiltration was further associated with an immune-active tumor microenvironment.

Conclusions: High intratumoral infiltration of PD-1⁺LAG-3⁺CD8⁺ T cells is associated with favorable prognosis and an immune-active microenvironment in GC. These cells display phenotypic features consistent with a pre-exhausted state and may serve as independent prognostic biomarkers and candidate predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy stratification.