Fig. 4

Patients with PR display enhanced frequency of PD-1⁺TIM3⁺ CD8 T cells at baseline. (a) Density plots of all data points (ALL: cells from 71 patients, 3 time points each) and split up according to BOR and time points. Plot with 10 clusters (lower left) is the result of gradients of density plots and iterative testing (see Materials and Methods for details). Individual clusters were assessed for significant differences between BOR groups and time points, and highlighted by red lines (see also Additional file 1: Figure S3C). (b) Density plots of individual markers and (c) expressions of markers within individual clusters according to relative intensities; clusters showing different abundance (from panel A) are highlighted by red rectangles. (d) Sum of different types of co-inhibitory receptors that are expressed by CD8 T cells (excluding CD57) at baseline. Green circles visualize fraction of CD8 T cells expressing 0 or 1 type of co-inhibitory receptors. (e) Frequencies of CD8 T cells positive for single markers or combinations of two markers showing significant differences. Markers used are listed in Additional file 1: Table S2, panel 4. Statistically significant differences between BOR groups and time points were determined using Mann–Whitney U test. * p < 0.05