Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 16 pp 16491—16513
Eight immune-related genes predict survival outcomes and immune characteristics in breast cancer
- 1 The Department of Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
- 2 The Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
Received: February 2, 2020 Accepted: July 6, 2020 Published: August 3, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103753How to Cite
Copyright © 2020 Xu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Advancements in immunotherapy have improved our understanding of the immune characteristics of breast cancer. Here, we analyzed gene expression profiles and clinical data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database to identify genes that were differentially expressed between breast tumor tissues and normal breast tissues. Comparisons with the Immunology Database and Analysis Portal (ImmPort) indicated that many of the identified differentially expressed genes were immune-related. Risk scores calculated based on an eight-gene signature constructed from these immune-related genes predicted both overall survival and relapse-free survival outcomes in breast cancer patients. The predictive value of the eight-gene signature was validated in different breast cancer subtypes using external datasets. Associations between risk score and breast cancer immune characteristics were also identified; in vitro experiments using breast cancer cell lines confirmed those associations. Thus, the novel eight-gene signature described here accurately predicts breast cancer survival outcomes as well as immune checkpoint expression and immune cell infiltration processes.
Abbreviations
TCGA: The Cancer Genome Atlas; OS: overall survival; RFS: relapse-free survival; TNBC: triple-negative breast cancer; HER2: human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2; DEG: differentially expressed gene; IRG: immune-related gene; LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator; ROC: Receiver Operating Characteristic; AUC: Area Under the Curve; GEO: Gene Expression Omnibus; Rt-PCR: Real-time quantitative PCR.