Assessment of the association of CD8+ T cell subsets with tumor size revealed significantly higher percentages of CD8+IFN-γ+TNF-α−, CD8+IL-10+ and CD8+IL-4+ T cells in TDLNs of patients with tongue SCC categorized as T3 + T4 compared to T1 + T2 group (P = 0.025, P = 0.0009 and P = 0.046, respectively, Fig. 8). Here, TNF is linked to tongue squamous cell carcinoma.