ITGAE and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Previous studies on HNSCC focused mostly on whole tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells and suggested that the abundance of infiltrating CD8+ T cells was associated with better overall survival (OS).17–19 Further, a subset of CD8+CD103+ tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) are critical for protective immunity in HNSCC.20,21 However, previous studies have shown that the prognostic value of Tex is controversial.