Lymphotoxin-driven cancer cell eradication by tumoricidal CD8+ TIL.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is FDA-approved for patients with treatment-resistant advanced melanoma, but the TIL subpopulations critical for tumor eradication remains incompletely understood. Using patient-derived TIL-melanoma co-cultures, we identified and characterized a novel subset of CD8+ TIL, capable of class I HLA-independent cancer cell lysis. The lymphotoxin β receptor (LTβR) and interferon (IFN) sensing pathways were nominated as key determinants of TIL-mediated cancer cell killing from a whole-genome, loss-of-function CRISPR screen. Validation studies confirmed that dual LTβR and IFN sensing is necessary and sufficient for cancer cell lysis, and that expanded CD8+ TIL express high lymphotoxin β (LTB) and upregulate lymphotoxin α (LTA) upon coculture with cancer cells. Leveraging paired scRNA-seq and scTCR-seq data, we confirmed that enrichment of LTB + CD8 + T cells is associated with clinical response to TIL, and that LTB + CD8 + TIL are expanded from putative neoantigen-reactive, LTB lo CD8+ T cells in resected tumors.