Immunity· 2026Q1
Distant lymph nodes compensate for resected tumor-draining lymph nodes during cancer immunotherapy
- 12citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Distant lymph nodes can compensate for the removal of tumor-draining lymph nodes (tdLNs), maintaining patient responsiveness to PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in melanoma, head and neck, and mammary carcinoma models.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Melanoma patients remain responsive to PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) after regional lymph node dissection.
- Murine models of melanoma and mammary carcinoma confirm persistent ICB response following tdLN resection.
- Soluble antigen is diverted to distant lymph nodes after tdLN removal.
- Reactive distant lymph nodes correlate with ICB response in head and neck cancer patients post-tdLN resection.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Lymphatic transport facilitates the presentation of cancer antigens in tumor-draining lymph nodes (tdLNs), leading to T cell activation and the generation of systemic anti-cancer immune surveillance. Surgical removal of tdLNs to control cancer progression is routine in clinical practice. However, whether removing tdLNs impairs immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is still controversial. Our analysis demonstrates that melanoma patients remain responsive to PD-1 checkpoint blockade after regional LN dissection. We were able to recapitulate the persistent response to ICB after regional LN resection in murine melanoma and mammary carcinoma models. Mechanistically, soluble antigen is diverted to distant LNs after tdLN dissection. Consistently, robust ICB responses in patients with head and neck cancer after primary tumor and tdLN resection correlated with the presence of reactive LNs in distant sites. These findings indicate that distant LNs sufficiently compensate for the removal of direct tdLNs and sustain the response to ICB.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Immunity, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Oncology
OncologyMedicine