Long-lived memory CD8⁺ T cells play important roles in tumor immunity. Studies over the past two decades have identified four subsets of memory CD8⁺ T cells - central, effector, stem-like, and tissue resident memory - that either circulate through blood, lymphoid and peripheral organs, or reside in tissues where cancers develop. In this article, we will review studies from both pre-clinical mouse models and human patients to summarize the phenotype, distribution and unique features of each memory subset, and highlight specific roles of each subset in anti-tumor immunity. Moreover, we will discuss how stem-cell like and resident memory CD8⁺ T cell subsets relate to exhausted tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) populations. These studies reveal how memory CD8⁺ T cell subsets together orchestrate durable immunity to cancer.

长寿命记忆 CD8 ⁺ T 细胞在肿瘤免疫中发挥重要作用。过去二十年的研究确定了记忆 CD8 ⁺ T 细胞的四个亚群——中枢、效应、干细胞样和组织驻留记忆——它们要么在血液、淋巴和外周器官中循环，要么驻留在癌症发展的组织中。在本文中，我们将回顾来自临床前小鼠模型和人类患者的研究，总结每个记忆亚群的表型、分布和独特特征，并突出每个亚群在抗肿瘤免疫中的具体作用。此外，我们将讨论干细胞样和常驻记忆 CD8 ⁺ T 细胞亚群与耗尽的肿瘤浸润淋巴细胞 (TIL) 群体之间的关系。这些研究揭示了记忆 CD8⁺ T 细胞亚群共同协调对癌症的持久免疫。