T-cell expression of CXCL13 is associated with immunotherapy response in a sex-dependent manner in patients with lung cancer

Abstract

Emerging evidence in preclinical models demonstrates that antitumor immunity is not equivalent between males and females. However, more investigation in patients and across a wider range of cancer types is needed to fully understand sex as a variable in tumor immune responses. We investigated differences in T-cell responses between male and female patients with lung cancer by performing sex-based analysis of single cell transcriptomic datasets. We found that the transcript encoding CXC motif chemokine ligand 13 (CXCL13), which has recently been shown to correlate with T-cell tumor specificity, is expressed at greater levels in T cells isolated from female compared to male patients. Furthermore, increased expression of CXCL13 was associated with response to PD-1–targeting immunotherapy in female but not male patients. These findings suggest that there are sex-based differences in T-cell function required for response to anti–PD-1 therapy in lung cancer that may need to be considered during patient treatment decisions.