Comparison of the transcriptome of “exhausted” CD8+ T cells infiltrating autochthonous melanomas to those of naive and acutely stimulated CD8+ T cells reveals that the transcriptional regulators Nr4A2 (nuclear receptor subfamily 4 group A member 2) and Maf are overexpressed in tumor Tex cells and are significantly upregulated in CD8+ T cells from human melanoma metastases. Here, NR4A2 is linked to melanoma.