Comprehensive analysis of prognostic immune-related genes and drug sensitivity in cervical cancer

Abstract Background Cervical cancer (CC) is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women. A limited number of studies have investigated whether immune-prognostic features can be used to predict the prognosis of CC. This study aimed to develop an improved prognostic risk scoring model (PRSM) for CC based on immune-related genes (IRGs) to predict survival and determine the key prognostic IRGs. Methods We downloaded the gene expression profiles and clinical data of CC patients from the TCGA and GEO databases. The ESTIMATE algorithm was used to calculate the score for both immune and stromal cells. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in different subpopulations were analyzed by “Limma”. A weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to establish a DEG co-expression module related to the immune score. Immune-related gene pairs (IRGPs) were constructed, and univariate- and Lasso-Cox regression analyses were used to analyze prognosis and establish a PRSM. A log-rank test was used to verify the accuracy and consistency of the scoring model. Identification of the predicted key IRG was ensured by the application of functional enrichment, DisNor, protein–protein interactions (PPIs) and heatmap. Finally, we extracted the key prognostic immune-related genes from the gene expression data, validated the key genes by immunohistochemistry and analyzed the correlation between their expression and drug sensitivity. Results A new PRSM was developed based on 22 IRGPs. The prognosis of the low-risk group in the model group (P < 0.001) and validation group (P = 0.039) was significantly better than that in the high-risk group. Furthermore, M1 and M2 macrophages were highly expressed in the low-risk group. Retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I)-like receptors (RLRs) and the Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) signaling pathway were significantly enriched in the low-risk group. Three representative genes (CD80, CD28, and LCP2) were markers of CC prognosis. CD80 and CD28 may more prominent represent important indicators to improve patient prognosis. These key genes was positively correlated with drug sensitivity. Finally, we found that differences in the sensitivity to JNK inhibitors could be distinguished based on the use and risk grouping of this PRSM. Conclusions The prognostic model based on the IRGs and key genes have potential clinical significance for predicting the prognosis of CC patients, providing a foundation for clinical prognosis judgment and individualized treatment.

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A Prognostic Model Based on Immune-Related Long Non-Coding RNAs for Patients With Cervical Cancer

Frontiers in Pharmacology ◽

10.3389/fphar.2020.585255 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Peijie Chen ◽

Yuting Gao ◽

Si Ouyang ◽

Li Wei ◽

Min Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cervical Cancer ◽

Cancer Patients ◽

Prognostic Model ◽

Risk Group ◽

Risk Groups ◽

Low Risk ◽

Training Set ◽

Non Coding Rnas ◽

Validation Set ◽

Immune Related Genes

Objectives: The study is performed to analyze the relationship between immune-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and the prognosis of cervical cancer patients. We constructed a prognostic model and explored the immune characteristics of different risk groups.Methods: We downloaded the gene expression profiles and clinical data of 227 patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and extracted immune-related lncRNAs. Cox regression analysis was used to pick out the predictive lncRNAs. The risk score of each patient was calculated based on the expression level of lncRNAs and regression coefficient (β), and a prognostic model was constructed. The overall survival (OS) of different risk groups was analyzed and compared by the Kaplan–Meier method. To analyze the distribution of immune-related genes in each group, principal component analysis and Gene set enrichment analysis were carried out. Estimation of STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumors using Expression data was performed to explore the immune microenvironment.Results: Patients were divided into training set and validation set. Five immune-related lncRNAs (H1FX-AS1, AL441992.1, USP30-AS1, AP001527.2, and AL031123.2) were selected for the construction of the prognostic model. Patients in the training set were divided into high-risk group with longer OS and low-risk group with shorter OS (p = 0.004); meanwhile, similar result were found in validation set (p = 0.013), combination set (p < 0.001) and patients with different tumor stages. This model was further confirmed in 56 cervical cancer tissues by Q-PCR. The distribution of immune-related genes was significantly different in each group. In addition, the immune score and the programmed death-ligand 1 expression of the low-risk group was higher.Conclusions: The prognostic model based on immune-related lncRNAs could predict the prognosis and immune status of cervical cancer patients which is conducive to clinical prognosis judgment and individual treatment.

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Expression of immune-related genes as prognostic biomarkers for the assessment of osteosarcoma clinical outcomes

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-03677-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Junjie Guo ◽

Xiaoyang Li ◽

Shen Shen ◽

Xuejian Wu

Keyword(s):

High Risk ◽

Risk Score ◽

Risk Group ◽

Low Risk ◽

Functional Enrichment ◽

Risk Scores ◽

Survival Prediction ◽

Promising Therapeutic Approach ◽

Score Model ◽

Immune Related Genes

AbstractCancer immunotherapy is a promising therapeutic approach, but the prognostic value of immune-related genes in osteosarcoma (OS) is unknown. Here, Target-OS RNA-seq data were analyzed to detect differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between OS subgroups, followed by functional enrichment analysis. Cox proportional risk regression was performed for each immune-related gene, and a risk score model to predict the prognosis of patients with OS was constructed. The risk scores were calculated using the risk signature to divide the training set into high-risk and low-risk groups, and validation was performed with GSE21257. We identified two immune-associated clusters, C1 and C2. C1 was closely related to immunity, and the immune score was significantly higher in C1 than in C2. Furthermore, we validated 6 immune cell hub genes related to the prognosis of OS: CD8A, KIR2DL1, CD79A, APBB1IP, GAL, and PLD3. Survival analysis revealed that the prognosis of the high-risk group was significantly worse than that of the low-risk group. We also explored whether the 6-gene prognostic risk model was effective for survival prediction. In conclusion, the constructed a risk score model based on immune-related genes and the survival of patients with OS could be a potential tool for targeted therapy.

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Identifying changes in immune cells and constructing prognostic models using immune-related genes in post-burn immunosuppression

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.12680 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. e12680

Author(s):

Peng Wang ◽

Zexin Zhang ◽

Bin Yin ◽

Jiayuan Li ◽

Cheng Xialin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

T Cell Activation ◽

Immune Cells ◽

Expression Profiles ◽

Functional Enrichment ◽

Prognostic Biomarkers ◽

Burn Patients ◽

Th Cells ◽

Key Genes ◽

Immune Related Genes

Background Burn patients are prone to infection as well as immunosuppression, which is a significant cause of death. Currently, there is a lack of prognostic biomarkers for immunosuppression in burn patients. This study was conducted to identify immune-related genes that are prognosis biomarkers in post-burn immunosuppression and potential targets for immunotherapy. Methods We downloaded the gene expression profiles and clinical data of 213 burn patients and 79 healthy samples from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Immune infiltration analysis was used to identify the proportion of circulating immune cells. Functional enrichment analyses were carried out to identify immune-related genes that were used to build miRNA-mRNA networks to screen key genes. Next, we carried out correlation analysis between immune cells and key genes that were then used to construct logistic regression models in GSE77791 and were validated in GSE19743. Finally, we determined the expression of key genes in burn patients using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results A total of 745 differently expressed genes were screened out: 299 were up-regulated and 446 were down-regulated. The number of Th-cells (CD4+) decreased while neutrophils increased in burn patients. The enrichment analysis showed that down-regulated genes were enriched in the T-cell activation pathway, while up-regulated genes were enriched in neutrophil activation response in burn patients. We screened out key genes (NFATC2, RORA, and CAMK4) that could be regulated by miRNA. The expression of key genes was related to the proportion of Th-cells (CD4+) and survival, and was an excellent predictor of prognosis in burns with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.945. Finally, we determined that NFATC2, RORA, and CAMK4 were down-regulated in burn patients. Conclusion We found that NFATC2, RORA, and CAMK4 were likely prognostic biomarkers in post-burn immunosuppression and potential immunotherapeutic targets to convert Th-cell dysfunction.

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Identification of Immune-Related Prognostic Biomarkers Associated with HPV-Positive Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Journal of Immunology Research ◽

10.1155/2021/6661625 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Yifei Chen ◽

Jin Nie ◽

Xiangsheng Li ◽

Tao Fan ◽

Xiaowen Deng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽

High Risk ◽

Cell Carcinoma ◽

Risk Group ◽

High Risk Group ◽

Low Risk ◽

Survival Prognosis ◽

Scoring Model ◽

Risk Scoring

Background. As a type of malignant tumor, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) seriously threatens human health. This study is aimed at constructing a new, reliable prognostic model. Method. The gene expression profile data of HNSCC patients were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas databases. The immune-related differentially expressed genes (IRDEGs) related to HNSCC were identified. We then used Cox regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analysis to explore IRDEGs related to the HNSCC prognosis and to construct and validate a risk scoring model and used ESTIMATE to evaluate tumor immune infiltration in HNSCC patients. Finally, we validated IGSF5 expression and function in HNSCC cells. Results. A total of 1,195 IRDEGs were found from the GSE65858 dataset. Thirty-one of the 1,195 IRDEGs were associated with the prognosis of HNSCC. Nine key IRDEGs were further selected using the LASSO method, and a risk scoring model was established for predicting the survival of HNSCC patients. According to the risk scoring model, the prognosis of patients in the high-risk group was worse than that of the low-risk group; the high-risk group had significantly higher immune scores than the low-risk group; and between the high- and low-risk samples, there were significant differences in the proportion of 10 types of cells, including naive cells, plasma cells, and resting CD4+ memory T cells. IGSF5 has low expression in HNSCC, and overexpression of IGSF5 significantly impaired HNSCC cell proliferation. Conclusion. This prognostic risk assessment model can help systematically evaluate the survival prognosis of HNSCC patients and provides a new research direction for the improvement of the survival prognosis of HNSCC patients in clinical practice.

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Construction of a five-gene prognostic model based on immune-related genes for the prediction of survival in pancreatic cancer

Bioscience Reports ◽

10.1042/bsr20204301 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Bo Liu ◽

Tingting Fu ◽

Ping He ◽

Chenyou Du ◽

Ke Xu

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Pancreatic Cancer ◽

High Risk ◽

Prognostic Model ◽

Risk Group ◽

Group Versus ◽

Low Risk ◽

Risk Patients ◽

Validation Set ◽

Immune Related Genes

Purpose: To identify differentially expressed immune-related genes (DEIRGs) and construct a model with survival-related DEIRGs for evaluating the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer (PC). Methods: Six microarray gene expression datasets of PC from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and ImmPort were used to identify DEIRGs. RNA sequencing and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas Program-Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma (TCGA-PAAD) database were used to establish the prognostic model. Univariate, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and multivariate Cox regression analyses were applied to determine the final variables of the prognostic model. The median risk score was used as the cut-off value to classify samples into low- and high-risk groups. The prognostic model was further validated using an internal validation set of TCGA and an external validation set of GSE62452. Results: In total, 142 DEIRGs were identified from six GEO datasets, 47 were survival-related DEIRGs. A prognostic model comprising five genes (i.e., ERAP2, CXCL9, AREG, DKK1, and IL20RB) was established. High-risk patients had poor survival compared with low-risk patients. The 1-, 2-, 3-year area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the model reached 0.85, 0.87, and 0.93, respectively. Additionally, the prognostic model reflected the infiltration of neutrophils and dendritic cells. The expression of most characteristic immune checkpoints was significantly higher in the high-risk group versus the low-risk group. Conclusions: The five-gene prognostic model showed reliably predictive accuracy. This model may provide useful information for immunotherapy and facilitate personalized monitoring for patients with PC.

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Immune‐related Long Noncoding RNA Signature for Patients with Cervical Cancer

10.21203/rs.3.rs-49217/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jianfeng Zheng ◽

Jinyi Tong ◽

Benben Cao ◽

Xia Zhang ◽

Zheng Niu

Keyword(s):

Cervical Cancer ◽

High Risk ◽

Risk Score ◽

Immune Cell ◽

Risk Group ◽

Risk Groups ◽

Low Risk ◽

Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽

Training Set ◽

Score Model

Abstract Background: Cervical cancer (CC) is a common gynecological malignancy for which prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers are urgently needed. The signature based on immune‐related lncRNAs(IRLs) of CC has never been reported. This study aimed to establish an IRL signature for patients with CC.Methods: The RNA-seq dataset was obtained from the TCGA, GEO, and GTEx database. The immune scores（IS）based on single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) were calculated to identify the IRLs, which were then analyzed using univariate Cox regression analysis to identify significant prognostic IRLs. A risk score model was established to divide patients into low-risk and high-risk groups based on the median risk score of these IRLs. This was then validated by splitting TCGA dataset(n=304) into a training-set(n=152) and a valid-set(n=152). The fraction of 22 immune cell subpopulations was evaluated in each sample to identify the differences between low-risk and high-risk groups. Additionally, a ceRNA network associated with the IRLs was constructed.Results: A cohort of 326 CC and 21 normal tissue samples with corresponding clinical information was included in this study. Twenty-eight IRLs were collected according to the Pearson’s correlation analysis between immune score and lncRNA expression (P < 0.01). Four IRLs (BZRAP1-AS1, EMX2OS, ZNF667-AS1, and CTC-429P9.1) with the most significant prognostic values (P < 0.05) were identified which demonstrated an ability to stratify patients into low-risk and high-risk groups by developing a risk score model. It was observed that patients in the low‐risk group showed longer overall survival (OS) than those in the high‐risk group in the training-set, valid-set, and total-set. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) for the four IRLs signature in predicting the one-, two-, and three-year survival rates were larger than 0.65. In addition, the low-risk and high-risk groups displayed different immune statuses in GSEA. These IRLs were also significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration. Conclusions: Our results showed that the IRL signature had a prognostic value for CC. Meanwhile, the specific mechanisms of the four-IRLs in the development of CC were ascertained preliminarily.

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Diagnostic model of combined ceRNA and DNA methylation related genes in esophageal carcinoma

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.8831 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. e8831 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Xiaojiao Guan ◽

Yao Yao ◽

Guangyao Bao ◽

Yue Wang ◽

Aimeng Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Esophageal Cancer ◽

Esophageal Carcinoma ◽

Differentially Expressed Genes ◽

Enrichment Analysis ◽

Functional Enrichment ◽

Differentially Expressed ◽

Diagnostic Model ◽

Link Type ◽

Key Genes

Esophageal cancer is a common malignant tumor in the world, and the aim of this study was to screen key genes related to the development of esophageal cancer using a variety of bioinformatics analysis tools and analyze their biological functions. The data of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were selected as the research object, processed and analyzed to screen differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) and differential methylation genes. The competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) interaction network of differentially expressed genes was constructed by bioinformatics tools DAVID, String, and Cytoscape. Biofunctional enrichment analysis was performed using Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). The expression of the screened genes and the survival of the patients were verified. By analyzing GSE59973 and GSE114110, we found three down-regulated and nine up-regulated miRNAs. The gene expression matrix of GSE120356 was calculated by Pearson correlation coefficient, and the 11696 pairs of ceRNA relation were determined. In the ceRNA network, 643 lncRNAs and 147 mRNAs showed methylation difference. Functional enrichment analysis showed that these differentially expressed genes were mainly concentrated in the FoxO signaling pathway and were involved in the corresponding cascade of calcineurin. By analyzing the clinical data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, it was found that four lncRNAs had an important impact on the survival and prognosis of esophageal carcinoma patients. QRT-PCR was also conducted to identify the expression of the key lncRNAs (RNF217-AS1, HCP5, ZFPM2-AS1 and HCG22) in ESCC samples. The selected key genes can provide theoretical guidance for further research on the molecular mechanism of esophageal carcinoma and the screening of molecular markers.

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Identifying and Validating an Acidosis-Related Signature Associated with Prognosis and Tumor Immune Infiltration Characteristics in Pancreatic Carcinoma

Journal of Immunology Research ◽

10.1155/2021/3821055 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Pingfei Tang ◽

Weiming Qu ◽

Dajun Wu ◽

Shihua Chen ◽

Minji Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

High Risk ◽

Pancreatic Carcinoma ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Risk Group ◽

Immune Dysfunction ◽

Low Risk ◽

Excellent Performance ◽

Kaplan Meier ◽

Prognostic Prediction

Background. Acidosis in the tumor microenvironment (TME) is involved in tumor immune dysfunction and tumor progression. We attempted to develop an acidosis-related index (ARI) signature to improve the prognostic prediction of pancreatic carcinoma (PC). Methods. Differential gene expression analyses of two public datasets (GSE152345 and GSE62452) from the Gene Expression Omnibus database were performed to identify the acidosis-related genes. The Cancer Genome Atlas–pancreatic carcinoma (TCGA-PAAD) cohort in the TCGA database was set as the discovery dataset. Univariate Cox regression and the Kaplan–Meier method were applied to screen for prognostic genes. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression was used to establish the optimal model. The tumor immune infiltrating pattern was characterized by the single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) method, and the prediction of immunotherapy responsiveness was conducted using the tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) algorithm. Results. We identified 133 acidosis-related genes, of which 37 were identified as prognostic genes by univariate Cox analysis in combination with the Kaplan–Meier method ( p values of both methods < 0.05). An acidosis-related signature involving seven genes (ARNTL2, DKK1, CEP55, CTSV, MYEOV, DSG2, and GBP2) was developed in TCGA-PAAD and further validated in GSE62452. Patients in the acidosis-related high-risk group consistently showed poorer survival outcomes than those in the low-risk group. The 5-year AUCs (areas under the curve) for survival prediction were 0.738 for TCGA-PAAD and 0.889 for GSE62452, suggesting excellent performance. The low-risk group in TCGA-PAAD showed a higher abundance of CD8+ T cells and activated natural killer cells and was predicted to possess an elevated proportion of immunotherapeutic responders compared with the high-risk counterpart. Conclusions. We developed a reliable acidosis-related signature that showed excellent performance in prognostic prediction and correlated with tumor immune infiltration, providing a new direction for prognostic evaluation and immunotherapy management in PC.

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Immune-Related Four-lncRNA Signature for Patients with Cervical Cancer

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2020/3641231 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Jianfeng Zheng ◽

Benben Cao ◽

Xia Zhang ◽

Zheng Niu ◽

Jinyi Tong

Keyword(s):

Cervical Cancer ◽

High Risk ◽

Immune Cell ◽

Risk Group ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Characteristic Curve ◽

Risk Groups ◽

High Risk Group ◽

Low Risk ◽

Gynecological Malignancy

Cervical cancer (CC) is a common gynecological malignancy for which prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers are urgently needed. The signature based on immune-related lncRNAs (IRLs) of CC has never been reported. This study is aimed at establishing an IRL signature for patients with CC. A cohort of 326 CC and 21 normal tissue samples with corresponding clinical information was included in this study. Twenty-eight IRLs were collected according to the Pearson correlation analysis between the immune score and lncRNA expression ( p < 0.01 ). Four IRLs (BZRAP1-AS1, EMX2OS, ZNF667-AS1, and CTC-429P9.1) with the most significant prognostic values ( p < 0.05 ) were identified which demonstrated an ability to stratify patients into the low-risk and high-risk groups by developing a risk score model. It was observed that patients in the low-risk group showed longer overall survival (OS) than those in the high-risk group in the training set, valid set, and total set. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) for the four-IRL signature in predicting the one-, two-, and three-year survival rates was larger than 0.65. In addition, the low-risk and high-risk groups displayed different immune statuses in GSEA. These IRLs were also significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration. Our results showed that the IRL signature had a prognostic value for CC. Meanwhile, the specific mechanisms of the four IRLs in the development of CC were ascertained preliminarily.

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Development and validation of an individualized immune-related gene pairs prognostic signature in papillary renal cell carcinoma

10.21203/rs.3.rs-29603/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Xianghong Zhou ◽

Shi Qiu ◽

Di Jin ◽

Kun Jin ◽

Xiaonan Zheng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

High Risk ◽

Risk Group ◽

High Risk Group ◽

Related Gene ◽

Prognostic Signature ◽

Gene Pairs ◽

Immune Related Gene ◽

Immune Related Genes

Abstract Background: Papillary renal carcinoma (PRCC) is one of the important subtypes of kidney cancer, with a high degree of heterogeneity. At present, there is still a lack of robust and accurate biomarkers for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment selection of PRCC. Considering the important role of tumor immunity in PRCC, we aim to construct a signature based on immune-related gene pairs (IRGPs) to estimate the prognostic of patients with PRCC.Methods: We obtained gene expression profiling and clinical information of patients with PRCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), which were divided into discovery and validation cohorts, respectively. The immune-related genes in the samples were used to construct gene pairs, and the immune-related genes pairs (IRGPs) with robust impact for overall survival (OS) were screened out to construct the signature by univariate analysis, multivariate Cox analysis, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) analysis. Then we verified the prognostic role of the signature, and assessed the relationship between this signature with tumor immune infiltration and functional pathways.Results: A total of 315 patients were included in our study, and divided to discovery (n=287) and validation (n=28) cohorts. Finally, we selected 14 IRGPs with a panel of 22 unique genes to construct the prognostic signature. According to the signature, we stratified patients into high-risk group and low-risk group. In both discovery and validation cohorts, the results of Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that there were significant differences in OS between the two groups (p<0.001). Combined with multiple clinical pathological factors, the results of multivariate analyses confirmed that this signature was an independent predictor of OS (HR, 3.548; 95%CI, 2.096−6.006; p<0.001). The results of immune infiltration analysis demonstrated that the abundance of multiple tumor-infiltration lymphocytes such as CD8+ T cells, Tregs, and T follicular cell helper were significantly higher in the high-risk group. Functional analysis showed that multiple immune-related signaling pathways were enriched in the high-risk group.Conclusions: We successfully established an individualized prognostic immune-related gene pairs signature, which can accurately and independently predict the OS of patients with PRCC.

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