Background: Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy has demonstrated favorable clinical efficacy, particularly for advanced or difficult-to-treat cancer types. However, this therapy is ineffective for many patients displaying lack of immune response or resistance to ICB. This study aimed to establish a novel four-gene signature (CD8A, CD8B, TCF7, and LEF1) to provide a prognostic immunotherapy biomarker for different cancers.
Methods: Transcriptome profiles and clinical data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to establish a four-gene signature. The R package estimate was used to obtain the immune score for every patient.
Results: Risk scores of the novel four-gene signature could effectively divided all patients into high- and low-risk groups, with distinct outcomes. The immune score calculated via the estimate package demonstrated that the four-gene signature was significantly associated with the immune infiltration level. Furthermore, the four-gene signature could predict the response to atezolizumab immunotherapy in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer.
Conclusions: The novel four-gene signature developed in this study is a good prognostic biomarker, as it could identify many kinds of patients with cancer who are likely to respond to and benefit from immunotherapy.
Keywords: CD8; LEF1; TCF7; cancer; immune checkpoint-blockade.
© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.