According to reciever operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, TIM3+CD8+ T cells in the tumor non-central region had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.9375 for predicting the effectiveness of immunotherapy, which was considerably higher than that of TIM3+CD8+ T cells in the tumor central region and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) [tumor proportion score (TPS)].<h4>Conclusions</h4>In the tumor microenvironment of NSCLC, TIM3+CD8+ T cells show regional distribution patterns. Here, CD8A is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.