Age-associated contraction of tumor-specific T cells impairs antitumor immunity

Abstract

Progressive decline of the adaptive immune system with increasing age coincides with a sharp increase in cancer incidence. In this study, we set out to understand whether deficits in antitumor immunity with advanced age promote tumor progression and/or drive resistance to immunotherapy. We found that multiple syngeneic cancers grew more rapidly in aged versus young adult mice, driven by dysfunctional CD8+ T-cell responses. By systematically mapping immune cell profiles within tumors, we identified loss of tumor antigen–specific CD8+ T cells as a primary feature accelerating the growth of tumors in aged mice and driving resistance to immunotherapy. When antigen-specific T cells from young adult mice were administered to aged mice, tumor outgrowth was delayed and the aged animals became sensitive to PD-1 blockade. These studies reveal how age-associated CD8+ T-cell dysfunction may license tumorigenesis in elderly patients and have important implications for the use of aged mice as pre-clinical models of aging and cancer.