A signature of six-hypoxia-related genes to evaluate the tumor immune microenvironment and predict prognosis in gastric cancer

Background: Hypoxia will trigger a series of immunosuppressive process in tumor microenvironment, leading to the progression in gastric cancer (GC). This research aims to establish a prognostic model made up of hypoxia-risk-related genes in GC.

Methods: Hypoxic genes were outlined via the protein-protein interaction network. And a prognostic model was developed using univariate cox analysis and lasso regression from data in TCGA. Two independent queues of GEO were used for validation.

Results: We set up a hypoxic model presented as an independent prognostic factor for GC. And a nomogram combined this model with clinical features can predict OS with great performance. Furthermore, DNA methylation, IHC and cell line analyses validated the expression of hypoxic genes in GC.

Conclusions: In summary, we proposed and verified a hypoxia-risk-related model, which could reflect the immune microenvironment and predict prognosis in GC.