Purpose: Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The protein NCAPG plays a significant role in tumor development. Patients & methods: We set up a tissue microarray (containing 140 NSCLC and ten normal lung tissues) and performed immunohistochemistry to assess NCAPG expression in the tissues of 140 patients. The prognostic value of NCAPG in NSCLC was assessed using the univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models and Kaplan-Meier plots. We analyzed the association between NCAPG and immune infiltration in NSCLC. Results: Multifactorial analysis and Kaplan-Meier plots revealed that upregulation of NCAPG expression was an independent factor in the prognosis of NSCLC. Data from CIBERSORT showed a negative correlation between NCAPG and the expression of memory CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, mast cells and natural killer cells (p < 0.001). Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that cell cycle, adhesion and proliferation were significantly enriched in samples with a high NCAPG expression. Conclusion:NCAPG is a novel biomarker of prognosis and is associated with immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment. Thus it may be a potential target in NSCLC treatment.
Keywords: NCAPG; NSCLC; immune infiltration; prognostic biomarkers.