The tumor microenvironment of benign and malignant salivary gland tumors.

BACKGROUND

Treatment of salivary gland tumors (SGTs) remains challenging. Little is known about the immune landscape of SGTs. We aimed to characterize the tumor microenvironment in benign and malignant SGTs.

METHODS

Eleven benign and nine malignant tumors were collected from patients undergoing curative intent surgery. Specimens were analyzed using mass cytometry by time-of-flight. Immune cell populations were manually gated, and T cells were clustered using the FlowSOM algorithm. Population frequencies were compared between high-grade and low-grade malignancies, corrected for multiple hypothesis testing.

RESULTS

There were trends towards increased CD4+ and CD8+ T cells among malignant tumors. High-grade malignancies exhibited trends towards higher frequencies of CD8+ PD-1+ CD39+ CD103+ exhausted T cells, CD4+ FoxP3+ TCF-1+ CD127- Tregs, and CD69+ CD25- CD4+ T cells compared to low-grade malignancies.

CONCLUSION

SGTs exhibit significant immunologic diversity. High-grade malignancies tended to have greater infiltration of exhausted CD8+ T cells and Tregs, which may guide future studies for immunotherapy strategies.