Only a minority of patients derive long-term clinical benefit from anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD-1) or anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (anti-PD-L1) monoclonal antibodies. The presence of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) has been associated with improved survival in several tumor types. Here, using a large-scale retrospective analysis of three independent cohorts of patients with cancer who were treated with anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 antibodies, we show that the presence of mature TLSs was associated with improved objective response rates, progression-free survival and overall survival, independent of PD-L1 expression status and CD8⁺ T cell density. These results pave the way for using TLS detection to select patients who are more likely to benefit from immune checkpoint blockade.

只有少数患者从抗程序性细胞死亡蛋白 1（抗 PD-1）或抗程序性死亡配体 1（抗 PD-L1）单克隆抗体中获得长期临床益处。三级淋巴结构 (TLS) 的存在与几种肿瘤类型的生存率提高有关。在这里，使用对接受抗 PD-1 或​​抗 PD-L1 抗体治疗的三个独立癌症患者队列的大规模回顾性分析，我们表明成熟 TLS 的存在与客观缓解率的提高有关，无进展生存期和总生存期，与 PD-L1 表达状态和 CD8 ⁺ T 细胞密度无关。这些结果为使用 TLS 检测选择更有可能从免疫检查点阻断中受益的患者铺平了道路。