Exploration of the Immune-Related Signatures and Immune Infiltration Analysis in Melanoma

In the present study, we aimed to investigate immune-related signatures and immune infiltration in melanoma. The transcriptome profiling and clinical data of melanoma were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, and their matched normal samples were obtained from the Genotype-Tissue Expression database. After merging the genome expression data using Perl, the limma package was used for data normalization. We screened the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and obtained immune signatures associated with melanoma by an immune-related signature list from the InnateDB database. Univariate Cox regression analysis was used to identify potential prognostic immune genes, and LASSO analysis was used to identify the hub genes. Next, based on the results of multivariate Cox regression analysis, we constructed a risk model for melanoma. We investigated the correlation between risk score and clinical characteristics and overall survival (OS) of patients. Based on the TIMER database, the association between selected immune signatures and immune cell distribution was evaluated. Next, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test was performed using CIBERSORT, which confirmed the differential distribution of immune-infiltrating cells between different risk groups. We obtained a list of 91 differentially expressed immune-related signatures. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that these immune-related DEGs participated in several areas of immune-related crosstalk, including cytokine-cytokine receptor interactions, JAK–STAT signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, and Th17 cell differentiation pathway. A risk model was established based on multivariate Cox analysis results, and Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed. The Kruskal-Wallis test suggested that a high risk score indicated a poorer OS and correlated with higher American Joint Committee on Cancer-TNM (AJCC-TNM) stages and advanced pathological stages ( P < 0.01 ). Furthermore, the association between hub immune signatures and immune cell distribution was evaluated in specific tumor samples. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to estimate immune infiltration density in the two groups, and results showed that the high-risk group exhibited a lower infiltration density, and the dominant immune cells included M0 macrophages ( P = 0.023 ) and activated mast cells ( P = 0.005 ).

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Comprehensive Analysis of Inflammatory Response–Related Genes, and Prognosis and Immune Infiltration in Patients With Low-Grade Glioma

Frontiers in Pharmacology ◽

10.3389/fphar.2021.748993 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Tao Han ◽

Zhifan Zuo ◽

Meilin Qu ◽

Yinghui Zhou ◽

Qing Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

High Risk ◽

Immune Cell ◽

Risk Model ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Risk Group ◽

High Risk Group ◽

Low Grade ◽

Immune Microenvironment ◽

Cox Regression Analysis

Background: Although low-grade glioma (LGG) has a good prognosis, it is prone to malignant transformation into high-grade glioma. It has been confirmed that the characteristics of inflammatory factors and immune microenvironment are closely related to the occurrence and development of tumors. It is necessary to clarify the role of inflammatory genes and immune infiltration in LGG.Methods: We downloaded the transcriptome gene expression data and corresponding clinical data of LGG patients from the TCGA and GTEX databases to screen prognosis-related differentially expressed inflammatory genes with the difference analysis and single-factor Cox regression analysis. The prognostic risk model was constructed by LASSO Cox regression analysis, which enables us to compare the overall survival rate of high- and low-risk groups in the model by Kaplan–Meier analysis and subsequently draw the risk curve and survival status diagram. We analyzed the accuracy of the prediction model via ROC curves and performed GSEA enrichment analysis. The ssGSEA algorithm was used to calculate the score of immune cell infiltration and the activity of immune-related pathways. The CellMiner database was used to study drug sensitivity.Results: In this study, 3 genes (CALCRL, MMP14, and SELL) were selected from 9 prognosis-related differential inflammation genes through LASSO Cox regression analysis to construct a prognostic risk model. Further analysis showed that the risk score was negatively correlated with the prognosis, and the ROC curve showed that the accuracy of the model was better. The age, grade, and risk score can be used as independent prognostic factors (p < 0.001). GSEA analysis confirmed that 6 immune-related pathways were enriched in the high-risk group. We found that the degree of infiltration of 12 immune cell subpopulations and the scores of 13 immune functions and pathways in the high-risk group were significantly increased by applying the ssGSEA method (p < 0.05). Finally, we explored the relationship between the genes in the model and the susceptibility of drugs.Conclusion: This study analyzed the correlation between the inflammation-related risk model and the immune microenvironment. It is expected to provide a reference for the screening of LGG prognostic markers and the evaluation of immune response.

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Identification of a Pyroptosis-Related lncRNA Risk Model for Predicting Prognosis and Immune Response in Colon Adenocarcinoma

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1234682/v1 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Yuying Tan ◽

Liqing Lu ◽

Xujun Liang ◽

Yongheng Chen

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

Risk Model ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Malignant Tumors ◽

Colon Adenocarcinoma ◽

Sequencing Data ◽

Cox Regression Analysis ◽

Immune Infiltration ◽

Cerna Network ◽

Kaplan Meier

Abstract Background: Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is one of the most common malignant tumors and diagnosed at an advanced stage with poor prognosis in the world. Pyroptosis is involved in the initiation and progression of tumors. This research focused on constructing a pyroptosis-related ceRNA network to generate a reliable risk model for risk prediction and immune infiltration analysis of COAD.Methods: Transcriptome data, miRNA-sequencing data and clinical information were downloaded from the TCGA database. Firstly, differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs), miRNAs (DEmiRNAs), and lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) were identified to construct a pyroptosis-related ceRNA network. Secondly, a pyroptosis-related lncRNA risk model was developed applying univariate Cox regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method (LASSO) regression analysis. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses were utilized to functionally annotate RNAs contained in the ceRNA network. In addition, Kaplan-Meier analysis, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, univariate and multivariate Cox regression, and nomogram were applied to validate this risk model. Finally, the relationship of this risk model with immune cells and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) related genes were analyzed.Results: Totally 5373 DEmRNAs, 1159 DElncRNAs and 355 DEmiRNAs were identified. A pyroptosis-related ceRNA regulatory network containing 132 lncRNAs, 7miRNAs and 5 mRNAs was constructed and a ceRNA-based pyroptosis-related risk model including 11 lncRNAs was built. Tumor tissues were classified into high- and low- risk groups according to the median risk score. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the high-risk group had a shorter survival time; ROC analysis, independent prognostic analysis and nomogram further indicated the risk model was a significant independent prognostic factor which had excellent ability to predict patients’ risk. Moreover, immune infiltration analysis indicated that the risk model was related to immune infiltration cells (i.e., B cells naïve, T cells follicular helper, Macrophages M1, etc.) and ICB-related genes (i.e., PD-1, CTLA4, HAVCR2, etc).Conclusions: This pyroptosis-related lncRNA risk model possessed good prognostic value and the ability to predict the outcome of ICB immunotherapy in COAD.

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A Novel Signature to Predict Thyroid Cancer Prognosis and Immune Landscape Using Immune-Related LncRNA Pairs

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1026831/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

BO SONG ◽

Lijun Tian ◽

Fan Zhang ◽

Zheyu Lin ◽

Boshen Gong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

Thyroid Cancer ◽

High Risk ◽

Small Molecule ◽

Immune Cell ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Risk Group ◽

High Risk Group ◽

Immune Cell Infiltration ◽

Cox Regression Analysis

Abstract Background: Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy worldwide. The incidence of TC is high and increasing worldwide due to continuous improvements in diagnostic technology. TC is still often overtreated due to a lack of reliable diagnostic biomarkers. Therefore, determining accurate prognostic predictions to stratify TC patients is important.Methods: Raw data were downloaded from the TCGA database, and pairwise comparisons were applied to identify differentially expressed immune-related lncRNA (DEirlncRNA) pairs. Then, we used univariate Cox regression analysis and a modified Lasso algorithm on these pairs to construct a risk assessment model for TC. Next, TC patients were assigned to high- and low-risk groups based on the optimal cutoff score of the model for the 1-year ROC curve. We evaluated the signature in terms of prognostic independence, predictive value, immune cell infiltration, ICI-related molecules and small-molecule inhibitor efficacy. Results: We identified 30 DEirlncRNA pairs through Lasso regression, and 14 pairs served as the novel predictive signature. The high-risk group had a significantly poorer prognosis than the low-risk group. Cox regression analysis revealed that this immune-related signature can predict prognosis independently and reliably for TC. With the CIBERSORT algorithm, we found an association between the signature and immune cell infiltration. Additionally, several immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-related molecules, such as PD-1 and PD-L1, showed a negative correlation with the high-risk group. We further found that some commonly used small-molecule inhibitors, such as sunitinib, were related to this new signature. Conclusions: We constructed a prognostic immune-related lncRNA signature that can predict TC patient survival without considering the technical bias of different platforms, and this signature also sheds light on TC overall prognosis and novel clinical treatments, such as ICB therapy and small molecular inhibitors.

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Development of an Immune-Related LncRNA Prognostic Signature for Glioma

Frontiers in Genetics ◽

10.3389/fgene.2021.678436 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Yudong Cao ◽

Hecheng Zhu ◽

Jun Tan ◽

Wen Yin ◽

Quanwei Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

Clinical Outcome ◽

Immune Cell ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽

Cell Infiltration ◽

Immune Cell Infiltration ◽

Prognostic Signature ◽

Cox Regression Analysis ◽

Immune Infiltration

IntroductionGlioma is the most common primary cancer of the central nervous system with dismal prognosis. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been discovered to play key roles in tumorigenesis in various cancers, including glioma. Because of the relevance between immune infiltrating and clinical outcome of glioma, identifying immune-related lncRNAs is urgent for better personalized management.Materials and methodsSingle-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was applied to estimate immune infiltration, and glioma samples were divided into high immune cell infiltration group and low immune cell infiltration group. After screening differentially expressed lncRNAs in two immune groups, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analysis was performed to construct an immune-related prognostic signature. Additionally, we explored the correlation between immune infiltration and the prognostic signature.ResultsA total of 653 samples were appropriate for further analyses, and 10 lncRNAs were identified as immune-related lncRNAs in glioma. After univariate Cox regression and LASSO Cox regression analysis, six lncRNAs were identified to construct a prognostic signature for glioma, which could be taken as independent prognostic factors in both univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Moreover, risk score was significantly correlated with all the 29 immune-related checkpoint expression (p < 0.05) in ssGSEA except neutrophils (p = 0.43).ConclusionThe study constructed an immune-related prognostic signature for glioma, which contributed to improve clinical outcome prediction and guide immunotherapy.

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Recognition of Immune Microenvironment Landscape and Immune-Related Prognostic Genes in Breast Cancer

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2020/3909416 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

Huiling Wang ◽

Shuo You ◽

Meng Fang ◽

Qian Fang

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

T Cells ◽

Regression Analysis ◽

Clustering Algorithm ◽

Immune Cell ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Therapeutic Potential ◽

Enrichment Analysis ◽

Cox Regression Analysis ◽

Immune Infiltration

Background. Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant tumor in women. The immunophenotype of tumor microenvironment (TME) has shown great therapeutic potential in tumor. Method. The transcriptome was obtained from TCGA and GEO data. Immune infiltration was analyzed by single-sample gene set enrichment (ssGSEA). The immune feature was constructed by Cox regression analysis. In addition, the coexpression of differential expression genes (DEGs) was identified. Through enrichment analysis, the function and pathway of module genes were identified. The somatic mutations related to immune characteristics were analyzed by Maftools. By using the consistency clustering algorithm, the molecular subtypes were constructed, and the overall survival time (OS) was predicted. Results. Immune landscape can be divided into low immune infiltration and high immune infiltration. Cox regression analysis identified seven immune cells as protective factors of BC. In the coexpression modules for DEGs of high and low immune infiltration, module 1 was related to T cells and high immune infiltration. In particular, the area under the curve (AUC) value of hub gene SASH3 was the highest, and the correlation with T cells was stronger in the high immune infiltration. Enrichment analysis found that oxidative stress, T cell aggregation, and apoptosis were observed in high immune infiltration. In addition, TP53 was identified as the most important somatic gene mutation related to immune characteristics. Importantly, we also constructed seven immune cell-based breast cancer subtypes to predict OS. Conclusion. We evaluated the immune landscape of BC and constructed the gene characteristics related to the immune landscape. The potential of T cells and SASH3 in immunotherapy of BC was revealed, which may guide the development of new clinical treatment strategies.

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Prognostic value and immune infiltration of novel signatures in colon cancer microenvironment

Cancer Cell International ◽

10.1186/s12935-021-02342-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yilin Lin ◽

Xiaoxian Pan ◽

Zhihua Chen ◽

Suyong Lin ◽

Zhanlong Shen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Colon Cancer ◽

Regression Analysis ◽

Prognostic Value ◽

Immune Cell ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Enrichment Analysis ◽

Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽

Cell Content ◽

Cox Regression Analysis ◽

Immune Infiltration

Abstract Background Growing evidence has shown that the prognosis for colon cancer depends on changes in microenvironment. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the prognostic value of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) related to immune microenvironment (IM) in colon cancer. Methods Single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was used to identify the subtypes of colon cancer based on the immune genomes of 29 immune signatures. Cox regression analysis identified a lncRNA signatures associated with immune infiltration. The Tumor Immune Estimation Resource database was used to analyze immune cell content. Results Colon cancer samples were divided into three subtypes by unsupervised cluster analysis. Cox regression analysis identified an immune infiltration-related 5-lncRNA signature. This signature combined with clinical factors can effectively improve the predictive ability for the overall survival (OS) of colon cancer. At the same time, we found that the expression of H19 affects the content of B cells and macrophages in the microenvironment of colon cancer and affects the prognosis of colon cancer. Finally, we constructed the H19 regulatory network and further analyzed the possible mechanisms. We found that knocking down the expression of H19 can significantly inhibit the expression of CCND1 and VEGFA. At the same time, the immunohistochemical assay found that the expression of CCND1 and VEGFA protein was significantly positively correlated with the infiltration of M2 type macrophages. Conclusion The findings may help to formulate clinical strategies and understand the underlying mechanisms of H19 regulation. H19 may be a biomarker for targeted treatment of colon cancer.

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Screening of miRNAs as Prognostic Biomarkers for Colon Adenocarcinoma and Biological Function Analysis of Their Target Genes

Frontiers in Oncology ◽

10.3389/fonc.2021.560136 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Guoliang Zheng ◽

GuoJun Zhang ◽

Yan Zhao ◽

Zhichao Zheng

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

Survival Analysis ◽

High Risk ◽

Prognostic Model ◽

Target Genes ◽

Risk Model ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Colon Adenocarcinoma ◽

Training Set ◽

Cox Regression Analysis

We constructed a prognostic risk model for colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) using microRNAs (miRNAs) as biomarkers. Clinical data of patients with COADs and miRNA-seq data were from TCGA, and the differential expression of miRNAs (carcinoma vs. para-carcinoma tissues) was assessed using R software. COAD data were randomly divided into Training and Testing Sets. A linear prognostic risk model was constructed using Cox regression analysis based on the Training Set. Patients were classified as high-risk or low-risk according to the score of the prognostic model. Survival analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate model performance. The gene targets in the prognostic model were identified and their biological functions were analyzed. Analysis of COAD and normal cell lines using qPCR was used to verify the model. There were 134 up-regulated and 140 down-regulated miRNAs. We used the Training Set to develop a prognostic model based on the expression of seven miRNAs. ROC analysis indicated this model had acceptable prediction accuracy (area under the curve=0.784). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that overall survival was worse in the high-risk group. Cox regression analysis showed that the 7-miRNA Risk Score was an independent prognostic factor. The 2,863 predicted target genes were mainly enriched in the MAPK, PI3K-AKT, proteoglycans in cancer, and mTOR signaling pathways. For unknown reasons, expression of these miRNAs in cancerous and normal cells differed somewhat from model predictions. Regardless, the 7-miRNA Risk Score can be used to predict COAD prognosis and may help to guide clinical treatment.

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Identification of IGF2BP2 as a Prognostic Biomarker and Immunotherapeutic Target Based on Alternative Splicing Events in Glioblastoma

10.21203/rs.3.rs-900457/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xin-Yu Li ◽

Lei Hou ◽

Lu-yu Zhang ◽

Xue-yuan Li ◽

xi-tao Yang

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

High Risk ◽

Prognostic Model ◽

Prognostic Markers ◽

Risk Model ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Prognostic Biomarker ◽

Low Risk ◽

Lasso Regression ◽

Cox Regression Analysis

Abstract Aim: A glioblastoma (GBM) prognostic model was developed with GBM -related alternative splicing (AS) data and prognostic markers were identified. Methods: AS data and clinical data of GBM patients were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) SpliceSeq database and TCGA database, respectively. The data from these two databases were intersected to screen the prognosis-associated AS events, which was subsequently examined in Univariate Cox regression models. To avoid model overfitting, LASSO regression analysis was conducted. On the basis of these AS events, we established a prognostic model of GBM with the use of multivariate Cox regression analysis. On the strength of this model, the patients were assigned into high-risk and low-risk groups with a median risk score as the threshold. Kaplan-Meier survival, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and calibration curves were applied to evaluate the performance of this model. Finally, combined with the risk model and clinicopathological characteristics, Cox regression analysis was utilized to identify the independent prognostic markers of GBM, and a nomogram was constructed. Results: The AS and clinical data of 169 GBM patients from the TCGA SpliceSeq and TCGA databases were collected. Univariate Cox regression analysis identified 1000 prognosis-related AS events in GBM, and then Lasso regression analysis identified 16 AS events. A GBM prognostic risk model was constructed based on AS events of 7 genes (FAM86B1, ZNF302, C19orf57, RPL39L, CBLL1, RWDD1, IGF2BP2). Through this model, we found lower overall survival (OS) rates of the high-risk population versus the low-risk population (p < 0.05). ROC and calibration curve analyses demonstrated the good ability of this model to predict the OS of GBM patients. Cox regression analysis suggested risk score as an independent prognostic factor for GBM. We also found that IGF2BP2 is associated with patient prognosis and have a strong relationship with immunotherapy response. Conclusion: The prognostic model based on AS events can significantly distinguish the survival rate of high-risk and low-risk GBM patients and IGF2BP2 were identified as a novel prognostic biomarker and immunotherapeutic target.

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Prognostic signature of lung adenocarcinoma based on stem cell-related genes

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-80453-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Zhanghao Huang ◽

Muqi Shi ◽

Hao Zhou ◽

Jinjie Wang ◽

Hai-Jian Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stem Cell ◽

High Risk ◽

Lung Adenocarcinoma ◽

Risk Model ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Risk Group ◽

High Risk Group ◽

Stem Cell Population ◽

Cox Regression Analysis ◽

Immune Infiltration

AbstractLung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is characterized by high infiltration and rapid growth. The function of the stem cell population is to control and maintain cell regeneration. Therefore, it is necessary to study the prognostic value of stem cell-related genes in LUAD. Signature genes were screened out from 166 stem cell-related genes according to the least absolute shrinkage operator (LASSO) and subsequently multivariate Cox regression analysis, and then established risk model. Immune infiltration and nomogram model were used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of signature. A signature consisting of 10 genes was used to dichotomize the LUAD patients into two groups (cutoff, 1.314), and then validated in GSE20319 and GSE42127. There was a significant correlation between signature and clinical characteristics. Patients with high-risk had a shorter overall survival. Furthermore, significant differences were found in multiple immune cells between the high-risk group and low-risk group. A high correlation was also reflected between signature and immune infiltration. What’s more, the signature could effectively predict the efficacy of chemotherapy in patients with LUAD, and a nomogram based on signature might accurately predict the prognosis of patients with LUAD. The signature-based of stem cell-related genes might be contributed to predicting prognosis of patients with LUAD.

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Development of prognosis model for colon cancer based on autophagy-related genes

World Journal of Surgical Oncology ◽

10.1186/s12957-020-02061-w ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xu Wang ◽

Yuanmin Xu ◽

Ting Li ◽

Bo Chen ◽

Wenqi Yang

Keyword(s):

Colon Cancer ◽

Regression Analysis ◽

High Risk ◽

Cancer Patients ◽

Risk Score ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Patient Survival ◽

Expression Profiles ◽

Cox Regression Analysis ◽

Risk Patients

Abstract Background Autophagy is an orderly catabolic process for degrading and removing unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components such as proteins and organelles. Although autophagy is known to play an important role in various types of cancer, the effects of autophagy-related genes (ARGs) on colon cancer have not been well studied. Methods Expression profiles from ARGs in 457 colon cancer patients were retrieved from the TCGA database (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov). Differentially expressed ARGs and ARGs related to overall patient survival were identified. Cox proportional-hazard models were used to investigate the association between ARG expression profiles and patient prognosis. Results Twenty ARGs were significantly associated with the overall survival of colon cancer patients. Five of these ARGs had a mutation rate ≥ 3%. Patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups based on Cox regression analysis of 8 ARGs. Low-risk patients had a significantly longer survival time than high-risk patients (p < 0.001). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the resulting risk score, which was associated with infiltration depth and metastasis, could be an independent predictor of patient survival. A nomogram was established to predict 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival of colon cancer patients based on 5 independent prognosis factors, including the risk score. The prognostic nomogram with online webserver was more effective and convenient to provide information for researchers and clinicians. Conclusion The 8 ARGs can be used to predict the prognosis of patients and provide information for their individualized treatment.

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