Growing evidence has highlighted the immune response as an important feature of carcinogenesis and therapeutic efficacy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study focused on the characterization of immune infiltration profiling in patients with NSCLC and its correlation with survival outcome. All TCGA samples were divided into three heterogeneous clusters based on immune cell profiles: cluster 1 ('low infiltration' cluster), cluster 2 ('heterogeneous infiltration' cluster) and cluster 3 ('high infiltration' cluster). The immune cells were responsible for a significantly favourable prognosis for the 'high infiltration' community. Cluster 1 had the lowest cytotoxic activity, tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), as well as immune checkpoint molecules expressions. In addition, MHC-I and immune co-stimulator were also found to have lower cluster 1 expressions, indicating a possible immune escape mechanism. A total of 43 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that overlapped among the groups were determined based on three clusters. Finally, based on a univariate Cox regression model, prognostic immune-related genes were identified and combined to construct a risk score model able to predict overall survival (OS) rates in the validation datasets.
Keywords: non-small cell lung cancer; prognostic; tumour microenvironment.
© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.