CD8⁺ T-cell states correlate with response in patients with AML. (A) Dot plot showing the enrichment of specific gene sets from pairwise GSEA comparisons (AML bas vs HD; Res vs NonRes bas; Res vs NonRes post) in bulk-RNAseq data (AML Res, n = 7, paired samples; AML NonRes, n = 10, paired samples; HD, n = 3). Size of dots indicates the statistical significance (large dot, FDR < 0.05; small dot, FDR ≥ 0.05); color scale shows the normalized enrichment score (NES). (B) Kaplan-Meier estimates of OS in patients (BeatAML2 cohort, n = 444 patients) with a GZMK⁺ early Tem signature above (n = 303) and below (n = 141) the optimal cut point, which was computed using the maxstat package in R. Survival curves were compared using a log-rank test. (C) Heatmap with the fluorescence intensity values of 9 markers across 5 CD8⁺ BM subsets from all samples annotated as naïve (CCR7⁺CD45RA⁺CD27⁺CD28⁺), Early Tm (CD28⁺, PD1⁺), Act (KLRG1⁺CD160⁺CD56⁺), and Term/SenL (CD45RA⁺CD57⁺KLRG1⁺). The median marker expression identifies the markers that characterize each cell subset. (D) MDS plot showing the distribution of flow cytometry CD8⁺ T-cell subsets. Each point represents a cluster-sample instance, colored by cluster to emphasize similarities between cell subpopulations. (E) Violin plot illustrating the distribution of flow cytometry CD8⁺ T-cell subsets along the MDS dim.1 axis. Each violin represents a different CD8⁺ T-cell subpopulation. (F) Heatmap showing relative cluster abundances by samples. Adjusted P values for the comparison NonRes vs Res are displayed, with significant comparisons (FDR < 0.05) highlighted in green. bas, baseline; GSEA, gene-set enrichment analysis; MDS dim.1, multidimensional scaling dimension 1; post, post-induction therapy.