OncoTargets and Therapy (Aug 2020)

Development and Validation of a Novel 8 Immune Gene Prognostic Signature Based on the Immune Expression Profile for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

  • Xu D,
  • Wang Y,
  • Zhou K,
  • Wu J,
  • Zhang Z,
  • Zhang J,
  • Yu Z,
  • Liu L,
  • Liu X,
  • Li B,
  • Zheng J

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 8125 – 8140

Abstract

Read online

Dafeng Xu,1 Yu Wang,2 Kailun Zhou,1 Jincai Wu,1 Zhensheng Zhang,1 Jiachao Zhang,1 Zhiwei Yu,1 Luzheng Liu,1 Xiangmei Liu,1 Bidan Li,1 Jinfang Zheng1 1Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan 570311, People’s Republic of China; 2Geriatrics Center, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan 570311, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jinfang ZhengDepartment of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Xiuhua Road 19, Xiuying District, Haikou City, Hainan Province 570311, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected]: The immune microenvironment plays a vital role in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study explored novel immune-related biomarkers to predict the prognosis of patients with HCC.Methods: RNA-Seq data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Univariate Cox regression was used to identify prognosis-related genes; the Lasso method was used to construct the prognosis risk model. Validation was performed on the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) cohort, and the C-index was calculated to evaluate its overall predictive performance. Western blots were conducted to evaluate the expression of genes.Results: There were 320 immune-related genes, 40 of which were significantly related to prognosis. Eight immune gene signatures (CKLF, IL12A, CCL20, PRELID1, GLMN, ACVR2A, CD7, and FYN) were established by Lasso Cox regression analysis. This immune signature performed well in different cohorts and can be an independent risk factor for prognosis. In addition, the overall predictive performance of this model was higher than the other models reported previously.Conclusion: The predictive immune model will enable patients with HCC to be more accurately managed in immunotherapy.Keywords: HCC, immune gene, prognostic markers, TCGA, ICGC

Keywords