Fig. 6

Varied levels of CD8 T-cell infiltration in tumors highly expressing inhibitory receptors. a, b High CTLA4/TIM3-expressing tumors in melanoma/KIRC show different CD8 T-cell infiltration levels. Dashed lines in both panels are the hypothetical high CTLA4 or TIM3 cutoff. Tumor purity is indicated by color. Arrows in b point to selected TCGA samples for immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis. c Sample with low TIM3 expression and CD8 T-cell infiltration used as a negative control. TIM3- or CD8-expressing cells are brown in color. Selected samples with (1) high TIM3 expression and (2) low (d) or high (e) CD8 T-cell infiltration showed the existence of two KIRC sample groups. TIM3 expression in d is twice as high as in e according to RNA-seq data. d Image represents about 15 % TCGA KIRC samples while e represents 5 %. The upper and lower panels were synchronized. TIM3 was expressed in cancer cells (d, e) as well as in lymphocytes (e). High magnification insets are presented in d and e to illustrate TIM3 expression in different cell types. Yellow boxes indicate lymphocytes; red boxes indicate tumor cells